Quoting scripture not enough

This letter is a suggestion to conservative evangelicals who intend on making their case against homosexuality. In this age of vague ethical boundaries, it's just not convincing to assert your own moral standards as the sole underlying principle in defending your position for most of today's social issues. Unfortunately, conservative evangelicals are often guilty of this, which explains why they are often outdone in social disputes. By solely quoting scripture, the evangelical puts himself on the defensive in a couple of different ways. Firstly, the opponent either has a different interpretation of the verses in question or holds the Bible in low esteem. Secondly, the evangelical puts himself at risk of being labeled an old-fashioned Fred Phelps-type bigot (though inevitable in some cases), and any future argument will be flippantly dismissed no matter how rational it may be. I am by no means suggesting to disregard any biblical teaching, but scripture alone will rarely persuade someone who doesn't consider them to be God-inspired. Conservative evangelicals must refrain from simply tagging the homosexual population as sinners. This is demeaning, and being labeled a sinner doesn't distinguish one human being from the other. One would make a much stronger case by citing health and social risks; for example a report on the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention Web site claims that sexually active homosexual men are 860 percent more likely to contract a sexually transmitted disease. Finally, conservative evangelicals must be driven by compassion rather than spiritual egocentricity. Religious haughtiness is far from the character Christ displayed, and the probable consequences should not be ignored. C.S. Lewis states: "The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of all sins. All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual; the pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronizing and spoiling sport, and back-biting, the pleasures of power, of hatred." Aaron John Stampfl
Graduate student