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In the 1939 movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” a young Jimmy Stewart faces congressional corruption and wins the day with an avalanche of mail from ordinary citizens fed up with the status quo of greed and back-room politics.

As I read in The Times, a Rev. Louis Sheldon now goes to Washington, both on an entirely different pilgrimage with a distinctly odious agenda.

Whereas “Mr. Smith” fought for the rights of all Americans to fair and decent government, Sheldon brings hostility, polarization and downright hatred to the capital in his zealous crusade against homosexuals.

As a heterosexual married father of three wonderfully mature children, I find Sheldon and his Traditional Values coalition offensive and certainly nonrepresentative of my values.

My values include tolerance, understanding and compassion. Unlike Sheldon’s, they do not include bigotry, bias and self-aggrandizement. Washington deserves any Mr. Smith and would be wise to shun the hatemongering Sheldons of this world. Jimmy Stewart, where are you when so needed by the reasonable?

D.I. COULSON, Orange