re: #26 Cosmic X
I have to admit that I did not read his book. The link I provided listed both moral decay (“loss of civic virtue”) and the “comparitive pacifism” of Christianity:
You’re equating civic virtue with morality. They’re not the same at all. Civic virtue in this context simply means doing ones duty as a citizen thru participation. Gibbon’s theory was that Christian morality undermined these civic virtues.
Using Gibbon’s context, the vigorous debate and attempts to bring this about legislatively points to a high degree of civic virtue, completely the opposite of the point you were attempting to make.