The Cross and the Switchblade

“Suddenly we were in Times Square. We thought of quiet evenings in Philipsburg as Miles read out words from the marquees: ‘Naked Secrets,’ ‘Loveless Love,’ ‘Teen-age Girl of the Night,’ ‘Shame.’”

In the early chapters, Wilkerson establishes a dichotomy between the quiet purity of his life in Philipsburg and what he portrays as the explicit sinfulness of New York City. Wilkerson is disturbed by the overt references to sex in Times Square and longs for home. However, he perseveres with his work in New York City despite this, which establishes his willingness to endure personal discomfort for his mission.

“Maria had expressed the opinion of the experts: there was virtually no hope for the ‘mainline’ addict, the one who injects heroin directly into the blood-stream.”

Wilkerson’s ideas about drug use reflect common notions of the time (namely, the late fifties and early sixties), and they can seem dated to 21st-century readers. In this case, he suggests that even experts believe that intravenous heroin users are essentially beyond hope; this argument is not supported by research conducted since the book’s publication. Wilkerson uses this detail while describing Maria to show that the Pentecostal practice of baptism of the Holy Spirit succeeded in helping her stop using heroin when even scientists and “experts” did not have any hope for people like her, bolstering support for his idea that baptism is a necessary step in treating people experiencing heroin use disorder.

“He said the boys had not gone into the park with any particular plan in mind: they had just gone out ‘rumbling’ (looking for trouble). ‘If it hadn’t been Farmer, they’d of been jitterbugging.’ Jitterbugging, we discovered, meant gang fighting.”

The use of unfamiliar (to readers) terminology to describe the way these teenagers behave and talk makes the teen gang seem like a strange, foreign group whose actions and speech are difficult to understand. This has the effect of distancing the reader from the group and placing them on Wilkerson’s side, as strangers to New York’s violence.

“When you strip it of everything else, Pentecost stands for power and life. That’s what came into the church when the Holy Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost.”

In this passage, Wilkerson’s grandfather encourages him to focus on Pentecost while preaching to the New York gangs. Pentecostal Christians emphasize the importance of direct personal communion with God through the Holy Spirit. Wilkerson’s grandfather believes that Pentecost’s “power” can transform the lives of the gang members, developing the theme of Redemption Through Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

“But in the morning I woke up safe. Was it my very innocence that kept me? Or was it the words from the 91st Psalm that I said over and over again as I fell asleep?”

When Wilkerson visits New York City to preach on the streets, he sleeps in his car in a dangerous neighborhood. He later wonders if his innocence or his fervent praying protected him, showing that he braved dangerous and uncomfortable situations to carry out his missionary work. He implies that the hand of God is responsible for his safety as he carries out God’s work.

“To be perfectly honest, neither one of us could rid himself of the suspicion that the boys were having some fun with us.”

This passage, which follows the street baptism of four gang leaders in Brooklyn, is a moment when Wilkerson questions whether he is making any true progress with the gang members since they might only be pretending to be moved by his words in order to joke around at his expense. However, when he later shares these doubts with Gwen, she points out that Wilkerson must not question the positive outcome, which was something of a miracle. Wilkerson ends up agreeing with her.

“Only Gwen was a little silent. ‘You realize,’ she said at last, ‘that that’s just when the baby’s due.’”

Wilkerson’s devotion to the teenage gang members of New York City is all-encompassing and selfless, and he presents himself as an instrument of God throughout the book. However, the inclusion of this passage, in which he schedules a conflicting event on his wife’s due date, shows that he understands that his devotion to his missionary work makes him a flawed husband and father. This is one of The Sacrifices Necessary for Missionary Work, Wilkerson suggests.

“We humans can work hard for each other, and we should and we must work. But it is God, and only God, who heals.”

This passage is representative of the book’s thematic interest in God’s power to transform lives. As he prepares for the youth rally, Wilkerson humbles himself and remembers to center God in the New York mission.

“‘Let’s see how Mary does,’ I said. ‘Maybe we won’t have to call more police. Maybe we can soothe the savage beast with song.’”

Though Wilkerson believes he is an instrument of God and is acting out God’s will, some passages, like this one, highlight his discomfort with the people and situations he encounters. By referring to teenagers—notably, Black and Hispanic teenagers—as “savage beasts,” Wilkerson seems to problematically suggest that they are less than human.

“My parents had to go to the court and I guess it was the first time they looked at me. They got scared when they saw what I was.”

This passage is representative of the book’s thematic interest in The Societal Roots of Gang Violence—in particular, loneliness as a motivator for teens joining gangs. In his first speaking engagement, Nicky is vulnerable and honest about the lack of family love and attention that led him to join the Mau Maus.

“Within three weeks we had stored our furniture and moved from the parsonage into four rooms in my wife’s parents’ house. And then I took off.”

As a character, Gwen Wilkerson is defined by her quiet, sacrificial nature as a pastor’s wife. This passage is indicative of the ways she (and her family) create space for Wilkerson to follow his mission. Wilkerson sees these sacrifices as being essential to his work.

“‘We are naive, Paul,’ said Pastor Berg. ‘Just about as naive as David was when he stepped up to Goliath with nothing but a sling, a pebble…and the conviction that he was on God’s side.’”

Throughout the book, Wilkerson depicts himself as a Christian hero, an instrument of God in a long lineage of such heroes. This passage explicitly compares the work of his mission to the work of King David, a prominent biblical figure. These comparisons elevate the importance of Wilkerson’s mission.

“In our literature we tackled problems such as drug addiction, promiscuity, drinking, masturbation and gang violence, offering help from the Bible […] At the end of three months, however, we could point to just a handful of boys and girls who had been truly changed as a result.”

Throughout the book, Wilkerson argues that direct engagement with troubled youths is the best way to serve the community. This passage indicates that traditional methods, such as pamphleteering and Bible-based arguments, are less persuasive than the Center’s direct engagement. It also reveals what Wilkerson considers sinful; “masturbation,” for example, appears on the same list as “gang violence,” and “drug addiction” is implicitly framed as a moral rather than psychological problem.

“‘And furthermore, Lord, let me raise that amount without mentioning how much we need.’ I paused. ‘And furthermore,’ I said, ‘let me raise it without even making an appeal. Let this be something the people do out of their own hearts.’”

Throughout the book, Wilkerson engages in a prayer practice he calls putting a fleece before the Lord, in which he asks God to fulfill specific conditions in order to demonstrate his will. In this instance, Wilkerson asks God to help him raise an exact amount of money without even asking for it to reassure Wilkerson that the mission is on the right path.

“There, beautifully carved into the fire-place in our chapel, was the bas-relief of a sheaf of wheat, brought in, tied and harvested.”

The wheat field behind the Philipsburg church is a symbol of the work Wilkerson feels God has called him to do. In this passage Wilkerson interprets a carving of a sheaf of wheat on the Center’s fireplace as evidence that God is involved in the mission.

“There are many crises to pass, many dry periods to ride out, much to learn about the art of being a Christian. If a boy confesses to the police too early and is put in jail, isn’t there a risk of losing him?”

In this passage, Wilkerson ponders the moral dilemma of allowing one of the boys at the Center to confess to a crime in the middle of his period of reformation. The passage implies that “losing” a boy to prison and gang life is worse than a crime going unreported. Wilkerson suggests that the prison system is flawed and will lead to the teen returning to a life of crime, while religion could successfully redeem him.

“She is known as a ‘Deb.’ She groups together with other youngsters like herself to form auxiliaries to the boy-gangs. Often these girl-gangs take names that echo the names of their male counterpart, as in the Cobras and the Cobrettes.”

This passage is indicative of the stylistic choices Wilkerson makes to depict teenage gang members as a separate society, complete with their own lingo. The use of the quotation marks around the term Deb makes it seem foreign; it is likely short for “debutante,” a term for a young woman making her formal entrance into society.

“The center has turned out to be just what we hoped it would be: a home. Full of love, subject to a spiritual discipline, heading toward the same common goal, but free.”

The idea for a home for teenage gang members appeared fully formed in Wilkerson’s imagination. This passage suggests that a residential center is more effective than his other kinds of missionary work because it helps the teens feel like they’re part of a family. Wilkerson understands that they need this sense of belonging since most have turned to gang membership out of loneliness.

“She had just taken her third shot of heroin and she had drunk a full bottle of whiskey, and she and her old gang were heading off to fight a rival gang.”

Wilkerson often paints the youngsters in the book in a shocking light, as illustrated by this passage. The extreme inebriation that this teen must be experiencing seems intended to shake up readers and show them the importance and necessity of Wilkerson’s mission.

“The accident put him in the hospital for several months, and for most of that time Joe was in severe pain. To help relieve his agony, the doctor prescribed a narcotic. By the time Joe was released from the hospital he was addicted.”

This passage, which describes the beginning of a teenager’s drug addiction, echoes many stories of opioid addiction. Wilkerson’s inclusion of this story demonstrates a modern perspective on drug use, acknowledging that addiction can take root in anyone and not only in neglected teens and hardened criminals.

“First of all you have power. You can read that in Acts 1:8. You shall have power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.”

By the end of the book, Nicky, a former gang leader that Wilkerson initially deemed hardened, is actively preaching to other boys at the Center. It is significant that he begins his sermon about baptism by focusing on power, given the formerly violent lives of the teenagers he’s addressing. This passage suggests that Nicky knows how to reach his audience and address their specific concerns or fears.

“Maria’s hair had just been shampooed and set, and it gleamed in the sun. Her shoes were new.”

When Wilkerson first encounters Maria, she is disheveled and is misusing alcohol and drugs. However, by the end, she has transformed her appearance and behavior. Wilkerson uses her appearance as a reflection of her spiritual state to demonstrate to readers that she is a reformed woman.

“Our records showed that 2,500 people all over New York had made a real contact with Love; they had turned their lives over to Christ. Hundreds of boys and girls had poured through the Center on their way to new jobs, to new outlooks, to creativity.”

Wilkerson gives an overview of his successes in the book’s final chapter. Significantly, he begins with the total number of people who were converted as a result of the mission and then describes the work of the Center itself. This framing presents the Center as part of a larger mission of Christianity.