Rachel Platten’s “Stand By You” is a lovely song that my kids enjoy quite a bit, but there’s a pair of lyrics in the song that trouble me deeply and should trouble you, too:
Oh, truth, I guess truth is what you believe in
And faith, I think faith is helping to reason
Let’s just be clear:
Truth is not what you believe in. Truth is accuracy comprised of incontrovertible facts. Truth cannot be refuted by personal preference or belief, despite what the President may think.
The idea that truth can be whatever the hell you want it to be is partly why we are in the mess we are today. The idea that truth is malleable depending upon need is a frightening concept.
What the hell were you thinking, Rachel Platten? WHY DID YOU SING THESE LYRICS? And please don’t tell me that she didn’t write the song, because as soon as you agree to sing the words, you own them. She could’ve just as easily said, “Hey! Wait a minute! This definition of truth in my song is insane!”
Also, she is listed as one of the writers of the song. She really owns these words.
And “faith is helping to reason?” I have no idea what the hell that even means, but it’s certainly not the definition of faith. It’s not even close. I don’t even think this lyric makes rationale sense.
In fact, the correct definition of faith is bizarrely close to Platten’s definition of truth. In fact, had she simply reversed the words in these two lyrics, the song would make a hell of a lot more sense:
Oh, faith, I guess faith is what you believe in
And truth, I think truth is helping to reason
I’m still not a fan of the second lyric, but it’s better than before, and now the first lyric actually makes perfect sense. Maybe the song wasn’t written incorrectly. Maybe she just sung it incorrectly. Perhaps she transposed the words while recording and no one noticed.
Either way, I routinely remind my children after listening to this song that the definitions of faith and truth in that song are not right. I suspect that they may be sick of hearing it by now, but I am sick of hearing these two stupid, inaccurate, illogical lyrics sung over and over and over again, especially when it would have been so damn easy to correct them.
