Being baptized in the Holy Spirit gave music and film icon Pat Boone and his wife, Shirley, a second chance when their marriage was falling apart, the 87-year-old revealed while discussing his upcoming film.A vibrant Boone stars in the upcoming film based on the popular book by Wally Armstrong and Ken Blanchard.
Mulligan is a term that allows a second chance after the first try goes wrong. In some informal games of golf, opponents will grant a player the courtesy of a do-over if they make a blunder.
“In the game of life, God makes the rules and He can grant you mulligan’s, second chances,” the outspoken Christian shared with The Christian Post in a video interview.
“That’s what the theme of this film is. It’s all about golf. It’s an exciting, well-made film about golf, the subject that millions of people love. But there’s [very few] movies about golf. God can give you second chances, and if you make the right choices, you can have a far better life in this realm and in the one that’s coming, inevitably, for all of us.”
Legendary star Pat Boone testifies of his tangible relationship with God
Now 87 years old, Boone said he needed second chances in life. With four children and 16 grandchildren, the gold recording artist admits there was a time when his marriage “nearly came apart.”Boone’s wife of 65 years, Shirley, died in 2019 at the age of 84.
“I can talk about it now, but after having had four kids … by the time we were 23 and I graduated from college, none of us realized that would eventually, perhaps, take its toll on Shirley’s body,” he said.
“There was a time after we moved to California and I was a big star and everything was going so great when I would simply put my arm around Shirley or want to kiss her on the cheek [and] she’d say, ‘No Way! Every time we have any kind of affection, for some reason, I get nauseous, and I can’t help it.’”
The entertainer said it was a challenging season for him as a man and husband.
“It’s sort of tough on a husband who can’t even embrace his wife or kiss her or anything without her getting sick in her stomach,” he noted. “I wanted her to go to a doctor, but she said, ‘No, I’m sure I’ll get past this.’ But it went on for a while. And I must say that I began to think about, ‘If this is where our marriage is going, she’s going to get sick every time I try to be amorous. This is not going to last.’”
“That trouble led to us receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit, which as good, churchgoing Christians, we were taught that all those wonderful supernatural things that happened to Christians in the first century, were not for today,” he said.
“We weren’t expecting anything supernatural in our lives, but now as we experienced the deliverance from this malady, [we] see even the pain and the suffering for a while had its purpose. [It] not only show[ed] us there needed to be something corrected, which would have gotten worse and worse in her life, … but also during that time, we learned that we could have the supernatural indwelling of the Holy Spirit through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.”
The Boones were a part of The Churches of Christ at that time. Because of their experience with the Holy Spirit, they were “excused or disfellowshipped.” Boone said the denomination believed that miracles, healing and being infilled with God’s presence were something that only happened to first-century Christians.
“At the time, we were the best-known members in the Church of Christ, which didn’t subscribe to the baptism of the Holy Spirit and thought that Shirley and I were misled and because of our example, we were teaching others falsehoods,” he said. “So, we were declared no longer members. Not because of drinking, gambling, womanizing or anything like that, but getting mixed up with this Holy Spirit bit.”
The disfellowship made headlines at the time.
“Well, many more members of The Church of Christ learned who this Holy Spirit is, and gradually that rift was remitted,” the Broadway headliner told CP. “But even that worked as a blessing in our lives personally.”
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