Updated Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Helms eulogized at Raleigh church

From staff reports

A bit of irony attended Sen. Jesse Helms' funeral July 8.

Services for Helms, a 30-year senator and icon of conservative politics who died July 4, were in his home church of Hayes Barton Baptist in Raleigh, which would identify itself as politically moderate.

Helms, 86, was often a controversial national political figure who wielded much influence and who is credited in large part with moving the south and the nation to the right. He rose in influence to chair the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Though regarded a hero by many in the Religious Right, Helms' own congregation resisted the conservative swing of the Southern Baptist Convention. Hayes Barton is aligned with both the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.

A firebrand politician whose views on race relations and social issues often divided Americans, Helms reportedly checked his politics at the door when he was at church, and he rarely missed a Sunday unless he was out of town.

"He was just a regular member here," church member Henry Warren told WRAL-TV. "There was no politics involved.... He was just who he was."

Fellow church member Wesley Williams said he often disagreed with Helms on political matters but always respected the courage of his convictions. "He was a good senator and a good citizen and I think he should be remembered in that manner," Williams said.

Julia Ledford, associate pastor at Hayes Barton, said staff members were following strict protocol regarding public comments about Helms out of respect for his family.

Helms' switch to the Republican Party in 1970 paved the way for others to follow suit and contributed to the Reagan Revolution that swept President Jimmy Carter, a Southern Baptist, from office in 1980, said Bob Allen at ethicsDaily.com. He is best known for his opposition to the Voting Rights Act and establishment of a Martin Luther King holiday, and for campaign appeals to racial tensions in the post-1960s South.

Helms supporters often say he was misunderstood in the arenas of race relations and homosexual rights because he had blacks on his staff and he treated persons he knew to be gay with the same gracious charm he displayed to all.

Helms attended Baptist-affiliated Wingate Junior College and Wake Forest College but did not graduate. Wingate University later awarded him an honorary doctorate. So did Campbell University and Bob Jones University.