The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson
Week 8: Chapter 8 — The Challenge of Addiction
Read Chapter 8 of The Cross and the Switchblade.
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When Wilkerson begins to encounter young people enslaved to heroin, he faces something that confronts the limits of everything he has tried before — and must discover whether the Holy Spirit is more powerful than chemical dependency.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Wilkerson's encounter with drug-addicted teenagers represents a new and more desperate dimension of the brokenness he is trying to address. How does addiction challenge the simple 'just decide to change' model of transformation that might work for some forms of sinful behavior?
2.Wilkerson becomes convinced — despite the medical establishment's skepticism — that the Holy Spirit can deliver people from heroin addiction without the prolonged physical withdrawal symptoms normally associated with quitting. This is one of the book's most controversial claims.
a.How do you personally process a claim like this? What would it take for you to believe or disbelieve it?
b.What is the risk of overclaiming miraculous healing in situations of addiction? What is the risk of underclaiming?
3.The young addicts Wilkerson meets are almost universally regarded as hopeless cases — by their families, by social workers, and even by themselves. How does the theology of grace — the idea that God gives what people do not deserve and cannot earn — speak directly into that sense of hopelessness?
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