Champion of the Underdog
A decade ago, the careers of two American speed skaters intersected in a fascinating way. Bonnie Blair was considered by many experts to be the most technically sound skater of all time. She seemed to be oblivious to pressure; she never had a bad race.
When it came to Olympic competition, Blair was virtually flawless.
She won a gold medal in the 500 meters in the 1988 games, then followed that
up with gold medals in the 500 and 1000 in 1992.Going into the 1994
competition in
Dan Jansen seemed to be headed on the same course. Relying more on power than technique, he was heavily favored to win both the 500 meters and 1000 meters in the 1988 men’s competition.
Just a few hours before the 500 race, however, he received word that his sister Jane had died of leukemia. The two were extremely close and Jansen was devastated. Unable to focus on the task, he lasted only 10 seconds before he fell and could not finish his race. He still had not recovered by the time the 1000 meters was held. He fell in that race as well and so failed to even place in this competition for which he had worked long and hard for so many years.
Jansen kept at it, though. He continued to work hard and four years later had a chance to redeem himself at the 1992 Games, where he was again favored to win at least one gold medal. But again, something was not quite right. In the 500, he stumbled slightly in a turn, and that slowed him down just enough so that he finished 4th, missing out on a medal. Then in the 1000 meters he completely fell apart and finished far back in the field. It seemed that the trauma of 4 years ago had left a permanent scar.
But Jansen was determined to give it one last chance, and so he
continued the long, hard drudgery of training for the 1994 Olympics in
Jansen went to the ice track for the final race of his Olympic career, the 1000 meters, which was not his best event, carrying the crushing weight of failure on his shoulders.
Nearly everyone in that stadium knew his sad story and was rooting for him to win, unlikely as that now was. With the roar of 10,000 fans in his ears, Jansen flew around the track. 800 meters into the race, he was well in front of the competition, on a world record pace.
And then it happened again. Going into the final turn at tremendous speed, Jansen could not quite hold it together. His skate slipped and you could hear a gasp of despair from the crowd.
This time, though, a determined Jansen put all his demons behind him. He willed himself to stay upright and charged through the turn more furiously then ever. When he hit the tape and his time was announced, the crowd went absolutely wild. Jansen had won the gold medal at last. A television audience of millions around the world celebrated with him.
Who was the better skater, Bonnie Blair or Dan Jansen? Obviously, it was Blair. Five gold medals, never blinked under pressure. Who was the star of the competition? Jansen. Why did the lesser skater outshine the greater one?
Because by his last race, Jansen was the underdog. He couldn’t catch a break. The pressure, the tragedy, the memories seemed too great to overcome. He could win only by overcoming a long series of huge obstacles. Blair had nothing like that to overcome. She was supposed to win. She did. Hard to get emotionally involved in that.
As basketball giant Wilt Chamberlain once lamented, “No one roots for Goliath.”
Cheering for the underdog has to be one of the most dominant themes in our culture. Our literature and cinema is overrun with tales of the struggles of the underdog. The 300 Spartans, the Miracle on Ice—USA vs. Soviet Union, Cinderella, Seabiscuit, Helen Keller, the Bad News Bears, Michigan vs. Appalachian State, the Tortoise and the Hare, Solidarity vs. the Soviet bloc, the Rocky movies—the list goes on and on.
What is it about underdogs that so inspires us? Why do we root for the underdog? Why do we instinctively find ourselves pulling for the plucky little guy against the rich and the powerful? Is it somehow a part of human nature?
I would be tempted to say it is, except for an article I read this week about Chinese culture. According to this author, the Chinese do not root for the underdog. To them an underdog victory is distressing because it represents a disturbance of the order in the world. Good teams and athletes achieve their favored status through hard work, discipline, and the establishment of a solid foundation and tradition.
They represent excellence in society. They represent the values of
society. When the favorites are defeated, therefore, it shakes the
foundation of the culture. An upset victory is seen as striking a blow
against the noble traditions on which society is based. Had the 1994
Olympics been staged in
The question I want to explore then, is where does the Western world’s passion for the underdog come from? Where did we learn it?
I suspect the answer is: in the book of Amos. We find the source of our passion for the underdog in Amos and the prophets, and throughout the Bible. That passion is so powerful and has become so deeply engrained that it affects all of our society. Even secularists who have no belief in God or understanding of the Bible catch the reflected light of what the Word reveals when they find themselves rooting for the underdog.
God’s soft spot for the underdog is one of the fundamental themes of the Bible. In Amos, we read, “Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals. The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of your deeds.”
This theme occurs again and again throughout the Bible. I, the Lord your God, stand with the underdog.
If you want to stand in proper relationship to your world and to your God, you will have to stand with the underdog, too. The prophets are constantly called by God to remind people that God’s vision for the world calls them to stand up for the powerless, the abused, the oppressed. We are repeatedly told to remember the widow and the orphan. Take care of the stranger. Tend to the poor and the needy. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, Blessed are the meek, the persecuted, the poor in spirit, for theirs in the kingdom of heaven.
Why does God have such a soft spot for the underdog? I think the answer is simple and it has nothing to do with sappy sentimentality. It has nothing to do with God playing favorites or liking some people better than others.
The writings of the Bible reveal that God has two main characteristics: love and justice. A God of love cannot help but favor the underdog, because genuine love always flows to where it is most needed. Genuine love is not something to be invested in those people who can best return it; it simply flows to where it is most needed. And the underdog is the one most in need of love.
Similarly, a God of justice cannot help but favor the underdog, because justice is about leveling the playing field so that all have an equal chance to share in the gifts of creation. Leveling the playing field means that the high places are brought down and the low places are lifted up. Underdogs live in the low places. By definition, then, justice means championing the underdog.
When we find ourselves rooting for the underdog, we are feeling the powerful current of love that flows to where it is most needed. The current that God set in motion.
Unfortunately, we so often find ourselves fighting against the current.
There was a fascinating experiment done recently on the subject of underdogs and our attitudes to them. Two groups of people were shown a painting. One group was told that the painting was by a famous master artist, the other was told that it was created by a struggling young unknown.
When questioned about their attitudes toward the artist, the groups were far more favorable toward the struggling young unknown than to the master. They wished the newcomer well and hoped that this painting would help launch his career. They showed no such concern for the fortunes of the master.
But when the two groups were asked to rate the quality of the painting, the ones who believed it was by a struggling unknown rated it far lower than those who were told it was done by a master.
The conclusion of the study was that while we cheer for the underdogs, we don’t really respect them. We do not value what they are, only what they might become.
Because of this, while we love underdogs, we have issues with too much love flowing in that direction. We don’t like to see love being wasted on the undeserving. We divert the current of love from going where it is most needed to where we think it will do the most good. And because of our sinful nature, we tend to think anything will do the most good when it does us the most good.
So we fight against the current of love.
That attitude was clearly reflected to me more than 20 years ago in a conversation I can remember as clearly as if it were yesterday. I was walking past the fence outside the 16th hole of the Minneapolis Country Club, a very posh, exclusive golf course. There was a foursome on the green, all appeared to be in their early 20s, with expensive cloths and haircuts.
One guy asked the others who they were going to vote for in the upcoming election. His partner responded that he was going to vote for candidate X. His reason: He says he’ll get rid of welfare.
Here was a guy barely out of his teens who had obviously had tons of money. He had every privilege and advantage of life that you could ask for. He lived higher than 99.9% of the people in this country, who live higher than 99.9% of the rest of the world. It is not a stretch to imagine that he enjoys tax breaks and shelters and deductions (welfare, if you will) worth far more than whatever the government gives a single mother on welfare.
And yet in a time of serious national problems and complex issues, the only thing he cared about in the whole political spectrum was making sure that those people most in need, struggling with trying to feed and house and clothe their families, did not get a penny of assistance from those who have more than they need. It is in incidents like this that the prophet Amos comes alive in defense of the underdog.
A few years after this incident, it was our congregation’s turn to host homeless families as part of an ecumenical service project, and I was the overnight host at our church. I talked for a long time to a man who was a professional who worked long hours at his job. But because of one medical disaster after the next, he was so overwhelmed by bills that he had lost his house. He had no savings, no money at all. He and his children had to live on cots, moving from one church to another each week. It was humiliating and heartbreaking to see his kids have to like that; but this man was so grateful for even that assistance. It gave him hope that in few weeks he could shovel out enough debt to save enough to rent a small apartment of their own. He didn’t know what he would have done without that current of love that God set in motion to flow to the underdog and he looked forward to being able to do the same for others. He’s an underdog, and I’m pulling for him.
Of course, there are many who abuse the system. That could be said of any system ever devised, by rich and poor. There are legitimate political debates as to how to limit government aid abuse, how to make the systems more efficient and more fair.
What we cannot debate is that the current of God’s love flows to the underdog. Amos tells us in no uncertain terms that God stands squarely on the side of the poor, the oppressed, the downtrodden, the powerless. And if we want to be where God is, to experience the joy of the reign of God over all the earth, then we had better get ourselves over there. When we serve at open table, when we support the CROP walk either with our feet or with our pocketbook, when we build a habitat home, when we support missions overseas and at home, when we contribute to disaster relief, when we purchase Christmas gifts for families in need, when we budget tax money toward human services, that is when we find ourselves standing close to God.
What Amos says to me is this: The next time you find yourself rooting for the underdog, remember that you are being tugged along by the current of love that always flows to where it is most needed. Let it remind you that the current that flows to the underdog comes from God. That this is the current that brings us into the presence of God.