From Bad to Worse-Todd and Jedd Hafer

From Bad to Worse
Todd and Jedd Hafer
Think (Navpress), Aug 2006, $12.99ISBN: 1576839702

Teenager Griffin Smith knows he is not in Kansan, the center of the great debate between God vs. coincidence AKA Darwinism. Griff is like most Wheat State residents and probably the brunt of the country thinking not all about whether God or Darwin created the universe. There are more important things in life than worrying whether one has an afterlife or not especially since he is about to begin his second road trip; having barely survived his first with his extended family including the irate coyote he ran over; he still suffers from post traumatic stress disorder.

This time the itinerary is to go from his California college to Oregon to pick up his childhood friend and secret love Amanda Mac to take her home with him. However he kicks himself for agreeing to his father’s abstinence vow caused by Griff hearing chase when his father said chaste. Amanda Mac is the woman for him though she is unaware of how much he loves her. He also has a secret that he believes will end any chance he has with Amanda Mac, but owes her the truth even as the miles pass without him able to tell her. He knows the family waits for his heroic arrival while he thanks God though he is not sure for what beyond being the modern day teenage Job.

The second Griff tale is a deep biting character driven story in which the hero and everyone he knows has issues that believing in God and even worshipping does not mean instant eraser with a prayer. This concept contrasts with recent claims of evangelists who “sinned” but prayed for cleansing and insisted God answered them. Thus the Hafer brothers provide a realistic, often amusing, but always underlying serious spin to being a teen Christian in the modern world. Young adults will appreciate FROM BAD TO WORSE and the equally poignant BAD IDEA.

Harriet Klausner