{"id":12499,"date":"2008-12-15T08:39:33","date_gmt":"2008-12-15T08:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/2008\/12\/15\/perilsofapublicchristian\/"},"modified":"2008-12-15T08:39:33","modified_gmt":"2008-12-15T08:39:33","slug":"perilsofapublicchristian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/","title":{"rendered":"Perils of a Public Christian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One morning last month, I arrived at London&#8217;s Heathrow Airport at 5 A.M. to check in for an early flight. I was physically tired and emotionally spent from several days of giving lectures and sermons. The woman at the ticket counter hardly looked up as she asked where I was going and how many bags I&#8217;d be checking.<\/p>\n\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m headed for Boston,&#8221; I said, &#8220;and I&#8217;m not checking anything.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p>For the first time she looked up and over the counter at my well-worn Brookstone roller bag (advertised to conform to FAA specifications for carry-on luggage) and said, &#8220;I&#8217;m sorry, but you&#8217;ll have to check that.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p>My amygdala (the fear-sensor in the brain) immediately awoke, prompting memories of misplaced luggage and long waits at baggage-claim in Boston. I said (trying to be calm) that I didn&#8217;t want to check my bag, that I&#8217;d carried it with me on the flight over to the UK a few days before, and I carry this particular bag on flights all the time. <\/p>\n\n<p>The woman replied rather bureaucratically: &#8220;I&#8217;m telling you that they&#8217;re not going to let you take that bag on the plane.&#8221; I had the distinct impression that we were not connecting.<\/p>\n\n<p>Conscious of my rising frustration, I deliberately coached myself into calmness and into a choice of words that would not accelerate tension between us. &#8220;Is there any way we could start this conversation over again and rethink the problem?&#8221; I asked. She took a very deep breath. Perhaps she was trying to keep cool also. <\/p>\n\n<p>&#8220;Do you see that over there?&#8221; she asked, pointing to a contraption made of tubes that outlined the shape of an apparently legal suitcase. &#8220;If you can fit your bag in that thing, I&#8217;ll let you take it with you.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p>I went over to the <em>thing<\/em> and lifted my bag into it. With a modicum of encouragement, it fit. I returned to the ticket counter feeling inwardly smug but careful not to show it. The woman made no comment except, &#8220;Passport, please.&#8221; I handed it over.<\/p>\n\n<p>She opened my passport and studied it. Then looking up and engaging me for the first time with any sort of feeling that suggested personal contact, she said, &#8220;Are you the Gordon MacDonald who writes books&mdash;Christian books?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p>&#8220;Yes, I do write,&#8221; I said. <\/p>\n\n<p>The change in atmosphere was instant. A broad smile came over her face as she said, &#8220;I&#8217;ve got several of your books at home. In fact I&#8217;m reading your latest book right now. I can&#8217;t believe I&#8217;m meeting you.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p>It was one of those moments you enjoy just a little too much. I had migrated from chump to champ in three seconds. We went on to exchange a bit of warm conversation (no one was waiting in line behind me). Finally, she sent me on my way to passport-control with my roller bag and a final word of gratitude for my writing. <\/p>\n\n<p>Forgive me if this story seems self-serving. But there is a point to be made about a lesson that was reinforced in me. Not everything in life has to be learned the hard way.<\/p>\n\n<p>At 5 A.M. one&#8217;s capacity not to vent in irritability or contentiousness is strained. While I&#8217;m not normally pugnacious, it would have been easy to have expressed my feelings harshly toward the woman who wanted to separate me from my bag. No small matter for a frequent flyer. I&#8217;m the customer, after all; she is the vender. She is a stranger, an employee of an airline that often seems to care little about me. And who would ever know about my less-than-Jesus-like behavior in such a depersonalized location as Heathrow airport?<\/p>\n\n<p>This time, while tempted to protest in strong terms not necessarily approved by God, I hadn&#8217;t. But suppose I had. How would the woman behind the counter have felt about my books then? Had I acted rudely, what impression would she have formed of me or the things about which I write? <\/p>\n\n<p>A few days after this encounter, I was scheduled to speak to seminary students about the &#8220;fruit of the (Holy) Spirit,&#8221; one of St. Paul&#8217;s many lists of Christian virtues and character-qualities in the New Testament. &#8220;The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control,&#8221; the old apostle wrote to people who had formerly assumed these categories of behavior to be weaknesses rather than strengths. As I prepared that talk, my memory kept retrieving the exchange at the Heathrow ticket counter. If you&#8217;re a Calvinist, you might believe that God set the moment up to test my worthiness to speak on the subject of the fruit of the Spirit.<\/p>\n\n<p>Quite likely I will never again meet that woman&mdash;whose name I never got&mdash;this side of eternity. But I wonder how often she is likely to pick up a Christian book and remember how one such author she met behaved in a moment of stress. Hopefully she&#8217;ll recall the one she met chose to be patient, kind, gentle, and reasonably self-controlled &hellip; a sampler of Paul&#8217;s &#8220;fruits.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p>A friend of mine has suggested to me that all day long in our human transactions, we inject into the commonwealth of human relationships either a bit of virtue or a bit of evil. It&#8217;s that simple, he says: one or the other. There is, he adds, no exchange between people that can be considered neutral. It&#8217;s either value-added or value-subtracted. <\/p>\n\n<p>It&#8217;s easy to subscribe to this idea when one is among friends. A bit scarier if you believe it can also happen when you&#8217;re in an airport a few thousand miles away from home where nobody knows your name. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"is-style-article-bio\">Gordon MacDonald is editor at large of <em class=\"citation\">Leadership<\/em> and interim president of Denver Seminary. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"is-style-article-copyright\">Copyright &copy; 2008 by the author or Christianity Today\/<em class=\"citation\">Leadership Journal<\/em>.\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/le\/help\/permissionsprivacy\/permissions.html#answer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"copyright\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here<\/a> for reprint information on <em class=\"citation\">Leadership Journal<\/em>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One morning last month, I arrived at London&#8217;s Heathrow Airport at 5 A.M. to check in for an early flight. I was physically tired and emotionally spent from several days of giving lectures and sermons. The woman at the ticket counter hardly looked up as she asked where I was going and how many bags <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"tax_ctp_authors":[1669],"tax_ctp_books":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[154],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[131],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[156],"tax_ctp_tags":[3372,3559,3591,3598,3918,4264,4611],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-12499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-gordon-macdonald","tax_publications-leadership-journal","tax_ctp_tags-accountability","tax_ctp_tags-character","tax_ctp_tags-christian-history","tax_ctp_tags-christianity","tax_ctp_tags-expectation","tax_ctp_tags-integrity","tax_ctp_tags-patience"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Perils of a Public Christian - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I needed a stimulus to tend my &quot;interaction economy.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Perils of a Public Christian - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I needed a stimulus to tend my &quot;interaction economy.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-15T08:39:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gordon MacDonald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"CMS Admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/85018388509706870f1ad6829069e1a3\"},\"headline\":\"Perils of a Public Christian\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-12-15T08:39:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-12-15T08:39:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/\"},\"wordCount\":1014,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/\",\"name\":\"Perils of a Public Christian - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-12-15T08:39:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-12-15T08:39:33+00:00\",\"description\":\"I needed a stimulus to tend my \\\"interaction economy.\\\"\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Perils of a Public Christian\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/85018388509706870f1ad6829069e1a3\",\"name\":\"CMS Admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b746e0581dc75423e361301b595167f5234d819bbff5b0a82621db777cbfeb9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b746e0581dc75423e361301b595167f5234d819bbff5b0a82621db777cbfeb9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"CMS Admin\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Perils of a Public Christian - CT Pastors","description":"I needed a stimulus to tend my \"interaction economy.\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Perils of a Public Christian - CT Pastors","og_description":"I needed a stimulus to tend my \"interaction economy.\"","og_url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/","og_site_name":"CT Pastors","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors","article_published_time":"2008-12-15T08:39:33+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":628,"url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Gordon MacDonald","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@CTpastors","twitter_site":"@CTpastors","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/"},"author":{"name":"CMS Admin","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/85018388509706870f1ad6829069e1a3"},"headline":"Perils of a Public Christian","datePublished":"2008-12-15T08:39:33+00:00","dateModified":"2008-12-15T08:39:33+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/"},"wordCount":1014,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization"},"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/","name":"Perils of a Public Christian - CT Pastors","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-12-15T08:39:33+00:00","dateModified":"2008-12-15T08:39:33+00:00","description":"I needed a stimulus to tend my \"interaction economy.\"","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Perils of a Public Christian"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/","name":"CT Pastors","description":"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization","name":"Christianity Today","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg","caption":"Christianity Today"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors","https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/85018388509706870f1ad6829069e1a3","name":"CMS Admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b746e0581dc75423e361301b595167f5234d819bbff5b0a82621db777cbfeb9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b746e0581dc75423e361301b595167f5234d819bbff5b0a82621db777cbfeb9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CMS Admin"}}]}},"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Perils of a Public Christian","url":"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/perilsofapublicchristian\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":""},"articleSection":"Uncategorized","author":"Gordon MacDonald","creator":"Gordon MacDonald","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"CT Pastors","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2008-12-15T08:39:33Z","datePublished":"2008-12-15T08:39:33Z","dateModified":"2008-12-15T08:39:33Z"},"rendered":"<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"wp-parsely-metadata\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"headline\":\"Perils of a Public Christian\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.christianitytoday.com\\\/pastors\\\/content\\\/perilsofapublicchristian\\\/\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.christianitytoday.com\\\/pastors\\\/content\\\/perilsofapublicchristian\\\/\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"url\":\"\"},\"articleSection\":\"Uncategorized\",\"author\":\"Gordon MacDonald\",\"creator\":\"Gordon MacDonald\",\"publisher\":{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"logo\":\"\"},\"keywords\":[],\"dateCreated\":\"2008-12-15T08:39:33Z\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-12-15T08:39:33Z\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-12-15T08:39:33Z\"}<\/script>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/christianitytoday.com\/p.js"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","byline":{"writer_byline":"Gordon MacDonald","writer_byline_override":""},"primary_category":null,"secondary_categories":[],"featured_video":null,"related_articles":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12500,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12499\/revisions\/12500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_authors?post=12499"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_books","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_books?post=12499"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_categories?post=12499"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory?post=12499"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_field_guides","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_field_guides?post=12499"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_format?post=12499"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_multimedia","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_multimedia?post=12499"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_point_editor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_point_editor?post=12499"},{"taxonomy":"tax_publications","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_publications?post=12499"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_tags?post=12499"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_topics?post=12499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}