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BY TERRY MACARTHUR

My grandfather was a terrorist, the Kenyan man said as he drove me home from church after a seminar on terrorism.

At least they called him a terrorist, the man went on. My grandmother was pregnant with my father when they came and beat him up in front of her. Then they hauled him off to prison. She thought he would die; the beating was so severe. He had been called a terrorist because he protested when he was forced off his land.

People in power are the ones who choose what is called terrorism and what is not. If a government throws people off their land without any compensation, we would normally think that this would arouse some protest. But those in control can label the protest terror, and thus make legitimate even more oppression. It is an old and often repeated story.

One speaker at the terrorism seminar from Zimbabwe remarked, The United States has said that it is going after anyone who supports terrorists, or finances them or gives them cover. Then the United States should go after itself first, because it is the biggest supporter of terrorism around the world.

Americans seem to have forgotten that the CIA gave substantial support to Osama bin Laden. The Taliban was originally funded by the United States.

Can we hear this view, which sees the United States as a perpetrator of terrorism, or is it too far away from our perception of ourselves?

Right after the Sept. 11 attack, I was in a Bible study at the Latin American community of the Methodist Church of Geneva. Viola began to speak. Her hands were shaking. Her words were few, but they were very strong.

She said she was shocked at the speech President Bush delivered during the memorial service at the Washington Cathedral. How was it possible that a Christian president of a Christian nation could speak, in the middle of a Christian worship service, of war?

Then she made a quiet comment. I know in a different way the results of American freedom. Viola is from Chile. When the dictator Pinochet was put in power with the support of the CIA, she was one of the people who had to leave. She lives in Geneva because she had to flee political oppression. It was oppression put in place and supported by the U.S. government.

That story is now well documented. You might understand that Viola would not be quick to make the equation others so often make that America equals freedom. She had a different experience. She knows too many friends who were murdered by the Pinochet regime that was supported by the United States.

I was sitting right next to her and summoned what Spanish I could muster to express that I too was concerned about all the talk of war. Viola reached over and put her hand on mine. Her trembling stopped and she, who had suffered much because of the United States, began comforting the only American in the room.

Our Bible study leader remarked that of course he was sympathetic to the victims of the attacks and to their families. But he hoped that all of the victims would be remembered and not just those who were in the World Trade Center or the Pentagon. He went on to mention all those who have suffered because of dictators that the United States has supported.

Yet, even amid the terror in this merciless world, the grace of God appears, bringing salvation to all. Gods grace breaks the relentless dynamic of retaliation.

God does not treat us on the basis of achievement, worth or power. God gives and forgives generously without counting the cost and offers life in its fullness, particularly to those who are the losers in our merciless world. May we therefore receive from his fullness grace upon grace as we work for peace with justice.

Terry MacArthur is a United Methodist missionary in Geneva, Switzerland.