In today’s politically charged climate, some advocates of racial reconciliation lump together that great need with controversial political policies and positions. On Feb. 1, though, the first day of Black History Month, I ran across two gospel-centric articles that explain how Christians, both pastors and lay people, can help to heal America’s racial wounds for the sake of the gospel—without the political baggage.

The partial government shutdown nearly halted an Atlanta-area celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy, as America marked the 90th birthday of the preacher, speaker, and civil rights activist Monday. The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park, home of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the civil rights icon preached, had closed because of the shutdown. It reopened Monday for a commemorative service with the help of a grant from Delta Air Lines.

The four men who founded the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) in 1859 owned a sizable amount of property—and people. The four founders together held more than 50 slaves.

It’s one of the many grievous facts recounted in a 71-page report SBTS leaders released last Wednesday.

Seminary president Al Mohler commissioned the report a year ago to document formally the role slavery and racism played in the school’s beginnings and its growth into the 20^th century. Six current and former faculty members served on a commission to write the report.

My younger brother and I grew up very close playmates. He’s about two years younger than me—the perfect age gap for me to boss him around while still sharing similar maturity levels and interests. I remember him following me around everywhere, and together we played Power Rangers, jumped rope, performed mock criminal trials (my brother was always the criminal, I the prosecutor), and when we got into trouble, we hugged each other piteously and cried. 

Over the past few months, many Asian-Americans have been quivering with anticipation for a movie they say they’ve been awaiting for too long: When was the last time we Asian-Americans had a major Hollywood production with an all-Asian cast? One that doesn’t involve karate chops, nerdy inch-thick glasses, and white-faced, oversexualized geishas? Trailers for Crazy Rich Asians ran on my social media feeds for weeks before the premiere, the algorithms theorizing that since I’m Korean-American and like movies, I would probably want to see two Asian lead characters smooch on screen.

Protesters on Monday night pulled down a Confederate monument at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill whose symbolism has been a source of debate for years. The bronze soldier known as “Silent Sam” was erected in 1913 as a memorial to students and alumni who fought and died for the Confederacy in the Civil War but also served as a reminder of the South’s history of racism. Hundreds of protesters Monday thwarted police, who have constantly guarded the monument in recent months, by concealing the statue with large banners as they tied a rope or cable around it.

Demonstrators turned out in the nation’s capital on Sunday to mark the one-year anniversary of a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. Patrol cars escorted a group of about 30 white supremacists from a Metro station to a park near the White House as thousands of counterprotesters chanted and spoke against the group. Jason Kessler, who organized the Charlottesville rally, also led the Washington, D.C., event.