t first you wonder why you're there. Then you wonder what on earth you'd write. Finally, with the deadline breathing down your neck like a pursuing predator, you begin composing, pulling random notes and scattered papers together, trying to make sense of it all; frantic. At last a draft is born, three times longer than the space you have. And suddenly a quite different problem haunts you: How to get it all in? Frustration.

That's how I felt covering the International Religious Liberty Congress (IRLA) in Manila June 10-13. As the space allotted to my report filled up, a sidebar comprised of quotable lines I'd collected during the conference stared up at me, begging for a place. What to do?

However good these lines, I knew their relevance carried an expiration date. Beyond the immediate context of the congress and my report (see pp. 22-27), their force would dissipate. So here's an abbreviated sampling.

1. From Philippine Senate president Franklin Drilon: "Never perhaps since medieval times has religion been so strongly in the forefront of our political and cultural lives." "From Ireland to Indonesia, from Israel to India, religion has assumed profound political significance, determining the way people think and live, and affecting the rise and fall of governments." "It is precisely in these troubled times, in these moments of great stress and confusion, that we need to keep our heads clear and our faith strong." "Religion is at once what makes us human and also what makes us larger and nobler than our human selves. Its free and peaceful exercise, unimpeded by the state, by political parties, and even-and especially-by other religions, is proof positive of our achievement and practice of our higher faculties." "We need to rescue true and purposeful religion from the cynical and dastardly uses to which it has been put by men less interested in the promise of heaven than in temporal power."

2. From Bert B. Beach, former general secretary, IRLA: "There is the real danger of eliminating evangelism-the lifeblood of a living, active church-when condemning proselytism, without a clear definition." "The goal of authentic evangelization is not to diminish another group, but to spread the gospel of salvation, 'present truth,' so that conversion takes place and souls are brought to Christ and the church family of their free choice."

3. From Moner M. Bajunaid, director of the Muslim Business Forum in General Santos City, Philippines, and a former chancellor of Mindanao State University: "Our judgment of Islam has been grossly distorted by taking the extremes to be the norm." "[The September 11, 2001, attack] was an act of provocation, if not war, against not one country but against humanity."

4. From Imee R. Marcos-Manotoc, Philippine House of Representatives (referring to terrorism): "This is not the work of religion . . . ; this is a war, not of religion, but for power-blind, bloodthirsty power." "Despite overwhelming odds, we can never submit, like the terrorists, to extra-legal, criminal, and immoral means."

5. From Senator Francisco S. Tatad, Philippine Congress: "Religious liberty is the first sign and safeguard of a just political and social order." "Politicians should never attempt to administer the sacraments, and churchmen should never attempt to run state affairs."

6. From Roland Minnerath, Catholic Theological Faculty, University of Strasbourg, and a consultant to the Vatican Secretariate of State: "Peace cannot be achieved through the oppression of religious minorities." "[The Universal] . . . Declaration [of Human Rights of 1948] proclaims that freedom of conscience and religion cannot be denied to any human person. . . . The Catholic Church feels comfortable with this declaration."

Unfortunately, space does not allow me to elaborate, nor to provide the full context of these lines. But I found them too good not to share. I was struck by the utter soberness of those who spoke them, and gratified that the yearning for religious freedom could be so universal and so deep.

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Roy Adams is an associate editor of the Adventist Review.