"...men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits or works, but are freely justified through Christ's sake, through faith, when they believe they are received into faith and that their sins are forgiven for Christ's sake, who, by His death, has made satisfaction for our sins."
That this doctrine has ample support in Scripture (Galatians 2:15-16; Romans 3:28, for instance), can be viewed as creating a conflict with James 2:24 or it can be read in concert to say that neither the ritualistic proclamation of faith nor the performance of work according to the law justifies man to God, which is what Jesus Himself is recorded to have taught at Matthew 8:22-23.
I share your puzzelment has to how any Christian, Catholc, Evangelical, or otherwise, could claim to find support in Scripture or the tradition of the church fathers to justify sodomy.
Yes, this “soft” version of sola fide, as we know, can be harmonized both with the scripture and with the Catholic teaching, but not the more strident doctrine that excludes works of love or any huiman cooperation with grace, adopted in the name of Luther by other Protestant denominations.
Regarding justifications for sodomy, here you have it. Puzzled as we both are, that man argued strictly from scripture. The point is not that sodomy is justified, but that Sola Scriptura has limitations.