i think dr. guthight be a good person to start >> well, i think there are several answers to that. the first answer is that they were too personality centered. they were started by falwell, robertson. and personality centered organizations usually don't survive the political or the real demise of the founder. it's very hard to make that sociological transition from first generation to second generation leadership. all those organizations also, because of their association with recognized leaders of particular segments of the evangelical community didn't have much attraction for the other segments of the evangelical community. jerry falwell basically attracted the baptist bible fundamentalists. and this was it as far as organization. had lots of people on his mailing list but it really never was much of an organization nationally. pat robertson attracted mostly pentecostals and didn't extend far in any other direction. it tends to be a pattern. since these organizations depend on the voluntary subscrip

dr. guth holdings a bachelor of science from the universe of wisconsin and a ph.d. from harvard university. and then in our center left, we have dr. tom mach, who joins our forum tonight from cedarville university, where he is the assistant vice president for academics, a professor of history, and the director of cedarville's honors program. he teaches courses in united states history and world view integration. his research area is 19th century america, especially the political history of the american civil war in the gilded age. he was selected to attend the american history seminar on the gilded age, sponsored by the gilder layerman institute of american history and the counsel of independent college, hosted by stanford university. his research also includes the role also of ohio and its politicians during the 19th century. dr. mach holdings a b.a. from cedarville university. an m.a. from cleveland state university and a ph.d. from the university of akron. and then finally, center right, is kellen funk. he's a ph.d. candidate in american history and the porter ogd