46 pages • 1 hour read
David Wilkerson, John Sherrill, Elizabeth SherrillThe Cross and the Switchblade
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1963A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Redemption Through Baptism of the Holy Spirit
Content Warning: The source material contains descriptions of drug abuse and addiction, sexual and physical violence against minors, and animal cruelty. Additionally, the source material endorses dated ideas about sex workers, sexually active women, and persons with substance use disorders. The source text also shows anti-gay bias and is prejudiced against Black and Hispanic people.
Practitioners of Pentecostal Christianity believe that baptism of the Holy Spirit endows baptized persons with God’s power and that they can use this power to transform their lives. In The Cross and the Switchblade, Wilkerson seeks to demonstrate the potency of this practice. As a Pentecostal minister, he believes that “the heart of the Gospel is change. It is transformation. It is being born again into new life” (57). He demonstrates that transformation in action through various narratives centered around the lives of teenage gang members who turned away from addiction and crime after receiving baptism of the Holy Spirit.
When Wilkerson first reads about the murder of Michael Farmer in Life magazine, he is horrified by the violence of the crime. However, he senses the potential within the “stooped, scared, pale, skinny children” who committed the crime (27). Wilkerson travels to New York to preach to the boys about God because he believes that God is “just waiting for each one of them to crawl right out of that old sin-shell and leave it behind. He’s waiting and yearning for the new man to come out” (58). Even though the teenagers have committed a violent and cruel act that initially horrifies Wilkerson, he nevertheless considers them worthy of redemption and grace. He thinks of their “sin” as a shell the boys can slip out of and emerge from “new” and pure, as a symbol of them being “born again.” These passages show Wilkerson’s Pentecostal belief that everyone has the potential to be redeemed through baptism of the Holy Spirit.
The process of transformation through baptism of the Holy Spirit is illustrated through the lives of several teenagers who populate the pages of The Cross and the Switchblade. For instance, George declares that he had “a pretty shoddy life” before he came to the Center (162). He used to strike up intimate relationships with older women and then move into their homes and steal valuable jewelry under the pretense of getting it repaired. However, after showing up to the Center “just for kicks,” George experiences an immediate change: He says he feels “a strange sensation of warmth the minute he walk[s] through the doors” (162). After he prays for his life to change, he feels a sense of release and goes on to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He experiences a dramatic transformation and goes on to leave his life of crime, repay his debts, and make plans to go into the ministry. Nicky undergoes a transformation as well; he goes from being the leader of a teen gang to a church minister. Maria, another teen, has a similar experience. She finally overcomes her heroin addiction after baptism of the Holy Spirit. Following this, she too plans to join the ministry. Wilkerson uses the stories of these teens to demonstrate the power of redemption offered to those who receive baptism of the Holy Spirit.
The Sacrifices Necessary for Missionary Work
After Wilkerson decides to heed his calling to help teen gang members in New York City, Wilkerson, his family, and his parishioners make significant sacrifices to work toward this goal. Wilkerson presents these sacrifices as necessary to the fulfilment of God’s will on Earth—an echo of Jesus’s sacrifice and especially vital to missionary work.
Wilkerson removes himself from his comfort zone and his family in order to serve the mission. His calling to work with teen gang members takes him away from his “sheltered” life in Philipsburg. Before he begins working in New York City full time, his grandfather warns Wilkerson that “meet[ing] wickedness in the flesh […] could petrify” him (57), and Wilkerson is indeed stunned and horrified by the lives he encounters. He describes how “alone, [he] wander[s] up and down the streets, watching and listening, and touching life at a level which [he], from the safety of [his] mountains, simply had not known existed” (62). Wilkerson’s journey into New York City—which he believes to be a truly difficult place, but one where he is needed—reflects his belief in the importance of personal sacrifice in missionary work.
Wilkerson’s family, too, contributes to the mission by making immense sacrifices. For instance, Gwen is due to give birth at the same time that Wilkerson is called away to New York City for a rally. Although Gwen’s mother is critical of Wilkerson for leaving his wife at this time, Gwen understands that the rally is important to Wilkerson’s mission and freely gives him permission to go. Later, when Wilkerson decides to move to New York City to work on his mission full time, he briefly questions whether he is “supposed to abandon [the] parish and move Gwen and [their] three small children into the dirty city with all its problems for daily living” (109). He ultimately decides to do so because he believes it is essential for his missionary work, and his family supports his decision.
The initial capital for Wilkerson’s missions to New York comes from members of Wilkerson’s parish in the mountains of Pennsylvania, and Wilkerson presents these donations as significant personal sacrifices on the parishioners’ part. Even before they are aware of the mission’s potential, these parishioners donate to the cause: “In spite of the fact that they did not understand what [he] was trying to do, [his] parishioners silently came forward […] and one by one placed an offering on the Communion table” (19). Wilkerson repeatedly acknowledges their monetary sacrifice, and when he needs more money, he refuses to ask them for it because he feels “these farmers and mine workers [are] already giving more than they should” (35). Ultimately, the parishioners give him more money of their own volition. Wilkerson uses this as evidence of God’s work in the mission, and he also expresses gratitude to his parishioners for the donations, which he depicts as meaningful sacrifices. These early donations set the wheels of Wilkerson’s mission into motion; without them, he would have been unable to follow his calling to New York City. This instance underscores Wilkerson’s notion that these sacrifices are not only necessary but also noble because they serve a greater good.
The Societal Roots of Gang Violence
Although Wilkerson’s primary goal is to demonstrate God’s ability to transform the lives of teenage gang members, he also takes time to explore the societal roots of gang violence. He identifies loneliness and the lack of social structures as crucial factors. He describes the young gang members he encounters in New York as “bored, lonely, and smolderingly angry,” and he suggests that they joined gangs because “they craved companionship, and they took that where they could find it” (45). A young gang member named Angelo confirms this suspicion, saying that the desire to join gangs “came because nobody loved you, and that all of his friends in the gangs [are] basically very lonely boys” (64). These passages indicate that loneliness is an important factor in causing teen boys to join gangs.
In addition to loneliness, Wilkerson identifies a lack of social structures and safety nets as an important motivator in teens joining gangs. Deindustrialization in the late 1950s led to the decline of many neighborhoods in New York. Wilkerson describes the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn as a “a completely uprooted neighborhood. Everybody in it was lost” (158). Within this “lost” neighborhood, Wilkerson sees the making of a gang: “a floating population of teenagers who are hostile and afraid, who flock together looking for security and a sense of belonging” (158). He discovers that providing the gang members with an alternative sense of structure allows him to reach them. For example, during the moment of his conversion, Nicky resists the urge to steal because of the trust Wilkerson shows—a new experience for Nicky. These examples suggest that, along with loneliness, a need for security and structure lead teenage boys to seek a place in gangs.
As a Pentecostal minister, Wilkerson believes that the solution to this loneliness and lack of structure is to get the boys involved in church life. His prayers reflect this understanding of their needs. When he first encounters teen gang members, he tells them that “God [understands] what they [are] looking for when they [drink] and [play] with sex, and He yearn[s] for them to have what they [are] looking for: stimulation and exhilaration and a sense of being sought after” (39). The Teen Challenge Center seeks to provide them with that joy and belonging through church services and street activism. As a result of this, Wilkerson suggests, the teens “know for the first time in their lives that they are really loved” (79).
