This is Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove. Until a few years ago it was Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral, but then his church went bankrupt and they sold it to the local Catholic diocese, which is growing quickly and needed a bigger space.

This was a very difficult photograph. The cathedral is a large building on a small space, so you can’t back up to get a picture of the whole thing. This is a 12-shot panorama taken from about 20 or 30 feet away, and it’s not bad, all things considered. However, it’s all but impossible to get all the lines straight. I suspect that the only way to really get a good picture of the place is from the air.

One of these days I’ll see what it looks like from inside. For a couple of years it was closed while they renovated the space. Then, aside from Sunday services, it was closed because they were “tuning the organ,” which I suspect may have been a little white violation of the Eighth Commandment. Now it’s closed because of COVID-19. Eventually, however, I assume it will open up and I’ll get to see it.

June 27, 2020 — Garden Grove, California

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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