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.
Chapter 18-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 18 Summary
Despite the challenges they face, the workers at the Center never give up. Wilkerson attributes this to the fact that the Center feels like a family, and it is full of laughter. He describes the harmless pranks that the teens engage in, explaining that they are so busy that they rarely have time to cause real trouble.
Despite the staff’s best efforts, the Center is unable to secure a permanent cook, so the residents and leaders all take turns cooking. Rather than dedicating a portion of its small budget to food costs, the Center relies on donations for food. One morning, they wake up to no food at the Center. Wilkerson encourages the residents to pray for food for the rest of the day. In the middle of their prayer, a woman comes in with a monetary donation that is enough to feed the Center’s residents for a day.
Most of the Center’s funds come from donations from across the country, and the money is usually just enough for them to get by. The second mortgage installment for the house is due in August, and Wilkerson worries about how he’ll pay it.
Chapter 19 Summary
In addition to the mortgage, Wilkerson also needs more money to fight the growing challenge of drug use and addiction in the teens he works with. Maria visits the Center, looking sick and exhausted; although Linda tries to speak to her, Maria refuses to stay. A few days later, she calls again, asking for Linda’s help to stop Maria’s gang from killing the leader of another gang.
Wilkerson outlines the extent of the drug crisis: According to official estimates, there are 30,000 people with substance addictions in New York City in 1961. Wilkerson suspects that there are many thousands more. He explains the strategies used to smuggle drugs into the United States and to pressure teenagers and children into buying marijuana and heroin. He attributes teenage crime and commercial sexual exploitation to drug use, explaining that teenagers will turn to crime to feed their habit.
A boy named Shorty asks Wilkerson to help his girlfriend, Tammy, get off heroin. When Wilkerson finds Tammy, she is in an apartment with drug dealers, and he watches as the group, including Shorty, uses heroin intravenously. Wilkerson begs Shorty and Tammy to leave with him, but they dismiss him. When Wilkerson returns to the apartment later to check on them, it is empty, and no one knows where the couple has gone.
Chapter 20 Summary
Wilkerson speculates that the astonishing hold drugs have over those who use them cannot simply be explained in physical terms. He believes that the Devil is gripping teenage drug users, and many teens seem to visualize the experience in similar terms, describing addiction as a monkey on their back.
Wilkerson’s experience with a boy named Joe convinces him that the Holy Spirit is needed to deliver drug users from addiction. Joe was injured while working in a coal mine and became addicted to narcotics after his doctor prescribed painkillers. Joe comes to the Center after eight months of steady intravenous drug use. For three days, Joe experiences debilitating withdrawal symptoms while Center staff members watch and pray over him. They teach Joe Psalm 31, which Wilkerson calls the Song of the Drug Addict. On the fourth day, Joe looks and feels much better, and he asks to go visit his parents. However, the next morning, Wilkerson learns that Joe has been arrested for robbery and possession of narcotics.
Distraught over his perceived failure, Wilkerson asks other young people who experienced addiction when they knew their recovery was complete. Each responds that they felt victory over their addiction after they were baptized as Christians.
Chapter 21 Summary
After encountering former gang members preaching in the street, a Jesuit priest named Father Gary comes to the Center to learn more about baptism of the Holy Spirit. Wilkerson spends the morning with Father Gary reviewing Bible passages that discuss baptism. He explains that baptism of the Holy Spirit is a spiritual change in which a person receives power. He describes the miracle of Pentecost: The Holy Spirit appeared to Jesus’s disciples and caused them to speak in foreign tongues. Wilkerson explains that his specific denomination, Pentecostalism, arose in the early 1900s as a response to the perceived impotency of organized Christianity. Wilkerson’s grandfather received baptism by the Holy Spirit while preaching against Pentecostals: In the middle of the sermon, he suddenly started shaking and speaking in tongues. Wilkerson and his father also spoke in tongues as part of their ministry.
The teenagers at the Center describe their own experiences with baptism to Father Gary, who leaves pondering the mystery. Shortly after he leaves, a young man named Roberto comes to the Center for a service. Nicky preaches about baptism of the Holy Spirit and describes how it changed his life. Roberto runs to the altar and prays to be reborn. As Nicky touches his head, Roberto begins speaking in tongues.
Chapter 22 Summary
Many at the Center who formerly used drugs and have received baptism no longer have addictions. Wilkerson excitedly contacts medical authorities to see if this could possibly be a cure for addiction, but he is told that five years of sobriety is needed for a person to be considered sober. When a baptized boy named Ralph relapses, Wilkerson worries that baptism is not the answer; however, Ralph only uses once, explaining that his desire to use is gone. Ralph believes that he was once trapped by heroin addiction but that he is now trapped by the Holy Spirit. Accordingly, Wilkerson is hopeful that baptism of the Holy Spirit can help people across America experiencing addiction.
Wilkerson and Linda pray that Maria too will be free from her heroin addiction. One day in late summer, they receive a call from Reverend Ortez’s church: Maria joyously shares that she has received baptism of the Holy Spirit. She stops using heroin and resists her gang’s violent efforts to draw her back in. Maria and her young family travel to Puerto Rico to train as Spanish-speaking missionaries, and they hope to work at the Center with people using heroin when they return.
Chapter 23 Summary
On August 28, 1961, the Center has only $14 in its account and is unable to pay the $15,000 mortgage check. The Center’s attorney is able to arrange a two-week extension, and Wilkerson leads the workers in a prayer service to thank God for providing the money. When the workers ask where the money came from, Wilkerson says that it hasn’t come yet. However, he is confident that it will arrive before the due date, and he thinks they should thank God in advance.
The Center’s workers desperately try to raise funds, and Harald Bredesen calls Clement Stone to thank him for his initial donation and to ask him for more money. He reaches Stone’s son, who promises to speak to his father about the matter. On September 10, one day before the mortgage check is due, Wilkerson holds a service for the workers to continue to pray. In the middle of the service, the Center receives a check from Stone for $15,000, allowing it to pay the mortgage.
Epilogue Summary
Wilkerson believes that the mission that began in New York is far from finished. His ministry has opened a second Teen Challenge Center in Chicago, and others are opening in Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, and Toronto. Wilkerson believes that the Holy Spirit is in charge of the mission.
Chapter 18-Epilogue Analysis
In the first part of The Cross and the Switchblade, Wilkerson celebrates the diversity of Christian denominations (Presbyterian, Episcopalian, etc.) that have come together in the Center, saying that “God wanted all sorts of people to be a part of [their] work” (149). Although Wilkerson himself is Pentecostal, he stresses the importance of this diversity through the first three quarters of the book. In this final section, however, Wilkerson dedicates more time to exploring the specific practices and beliefs of Pentecostalism. Chapters 21 and 22 focus on explaining and demonstrating the value of the most important tenet of Pentecostalism: Redemption Through Baptism of the Holy Spirit, which involves speaking in tongues. In Chapter 21, a Jesuit priest named Father Gary visits the center; he “heard [the Center’s] young people at a street rally and [is] so impressed that he want[s] to know their secret” (202). Father Gary acts as a stand-in for the reader as Wilkerson explains the significance of Pentecostal baptism. Wilkerson says that “baptism is a religious experience which gives you power” (202), elaborating that it “marks the difference between the mission of a mere man, no matter how bold and effective, and the mission of Christ” (203). Throughout this section, Wilkerson points to specific Bible verses to support his arguments. The emphasis on baptism transferring divine power onto people is directly related to Wilkerson’s belief that the Center is enacting God’s will.
In Chapter 22, Wilkerson explores the idea that baptism of the Holy Spirit is an effective cure for alcohol and drug addiction, which also serves to highlight the benefits of Pentecostalism. Wilkerson tells the stories of a number of teens who stopped using drugs after their baptism: “Johnny had been on heroin four years, and pulled away successfully after his baptism. […] Vincent used heroin two years, until his baptism when he stopped instantaneously” (212). Although Wilkerson concedes that some baptized former users relapse, he suggests that baptism of the Holy Spirit is ultimately more powerful. This belief reflects the Pentecostal faith at the heart of Wilkerson’s mission and writing.
Although the primary purpose of the book is to demonstrate the value of institutions like the Teen Challenge Center, these final chapters also promote the power of Pentecostalism as a denomination. At points throughout the book, Wilkerson describes discrimination he faces from other Christians who are suspicious of Pentecostalism’s loud worship styles and personal connection with the Holy Spirit. The chapters in this section seek to demonstrate the value of Pentecostal practices, especially to missions serving children and teenagers.
The final chapter of The Cross and the Switchblade describes the Center’s desperate attempts to make its second mortgage payment of $15,000 in August 1961. Ultimately, the money comes at the last minute in the form of a single massive donation for exactly the amount needed. Wilkerson expresses “gratitude to a God who moves in mysterious ways his wonders to perform” (223), continuing the recurring motif of God providing for the Center’s financial needs. The story of the mortgage payment also acts as a call to action: Wilkerson suggests that God has provided for the center through the donations of others and implies that God will continue to provide through future donations, presumably given by readers who will be moved to make monetary sacrifices and donate to this mission. On this note, the book’s Epilogue proudly announces the opening of new Teen Challenge Centers in major cities across the United States while also expressing worries that those homes “will operate on current balances of fourteen, fifteen, sixteen dollars at a time” (223). Although Wilkerson assures readers that “the Holy Spirit is in Charge” (223), the inclusion of these details in the Epilogue serves as a call to action for Wilkerson’s audience to donate to his missions in New York and elsewhere.
