Church by Fall Out Boy Lyrics Meaning – Unraveling Devotion and Desire in Modern Hymns

You can view the lyrics, alternate interprations and sheet music for Fall Out Boy's Church at Lyrics.org.

Lyrics

If you were church, I’d get on my knees
Confess my love, I’d know where to be
My sanctuary, you’re holy to me
If you were church, I’d get on my knees
I’d get on my knees
I’d get on my knees
I’d get on my knees

And take the pain
Make it billboard big then swallow it for me
Time-capsule for the future
Trust me, that’s what I will be
Oh, the things that you do in the name of what you love
You were doomed but just enough
You were doomed but just enough

If you were church, whoo
I’d get on my knees, yeah
Confess my love, I’d know where to be
My sanctuary, you’re holy to me
If you were church, yeah, I’d get on my knees
I’d get on my knees, whoo
I’d get on my knees
I’d get on my knees

I love the world but I just don’t love the way it makes me feel
Got a few more fake friends
And it’s getting hard to know what’s real
And if death is the last appointment
Then we’re all just sitting in the waiting room
I am just a human trying to avoid my certain doom

If you were church, yeah
I’d get on my knees
Confess my love, I’d know where to be
My sanctuary, you’re holy to me
If you were church, yeah, I’d get on my knees
I’d get on my knees, yeah, oh
I’d get on my knees, ah ah ah
I’d get on my knees, yeah
I’d get on my knees

If you were church
I’d get on my knees
Confess my love, I’d know where to be
My sanctuary, you’re, you’re holy to me, you’re holy to me
If you were church, yeah, I’d get on my knees, yeah

Fall Out Boy has always been adept at weaving intricate tapestries of emotion and narrative through their music. ‘Church,’ a track from their 2018 album ‘M A N I A,’ is no exception. Its lyrical complexity offers a rich soil for discussion, interpretation, and reflection.

This song, interlaced with themes of devotion, desire, and existential reflection, provides a contemporary spin on age-old metaphors, conjuring images that resonate profoundly with our modern zeitgeist.

A Modern-Day Psalm: Fall Out Boy’s Take on Worship and Sacrifice

The repeating line, ‘If you were church, I’d get on my knees,’ is a stark entreaty, blurring the lines between the sacred and the profane. Here, the metaphor of the church represents an object of profound desire, elevating the ‘you’ to a status of worship that rivals that of a deity.

Simultaneously, the act of getting on one’s knees signifies a submissiveness reserved for the divine, a repository for confessions and a profound love. ‘Church’ becomes not just a song but a modern psalm, a heartfelt paradox bridging the gap between carnal desire and divine worship.

Billboard-Sized Pain and Future Echos: The Burden of Love

The phrase ‘Make it billboard big then swallow it for me’ illuminates the grandiosity of personal sacrifice in the name of love. It’s an appeal for the acknowledgment of pain on a public scale, only then to internalize it as a private act of devotion.

A ‘time-capsule for the future’ implies that these feelings, these sacrifices are messages meant to endure, poignant reminders of what love compelled us to endure. It’s a testimony to the historic power of love, preserved and undiminished.

The Inescapable Human Condition: Navigating Reality and Impending Doom

Against the backdrop of spiritual imagery, the band grapples with the existential. The lines ‘I love the world but I just don’t love the way it makes me feel’ and ‘I am just a human trying to avoid my certain doom’ resonate with a contemporary audience facing a world of disconnect.

The ‘few more fake friends’ represents the illusions of connection common in the digital age. ‘We’re all just sitting in the waiting room’ paints life as a reluctant, shared prelude to the only certainty: death.

Unlocking ‘Church’s’ Hidden Resonance: Subverting Expectations

Fall Out Boy has consistently veered away from the conventional, and ‘Church’ is a testament to their craft. With religious imagery at its core, the song subverts expectations, transforming traditional symbols into vessels for exploring the complexity of human emotions.

The repeated confession of love to the ‘church’ conveys more than piety; it’s emblematic of modern relationships, the sacredness we bestow upon those we adore, and the lengths we will go to preserve that sanctity.

Memorable Lines that Echo Through the Chapel of the Heart

The song’s climactic declaration, ‘My sanctuary, you’re holy to me,’ is a lyrical embrace that will haunt listeners. The idea of personal sanctuaries and individual holiness captures the blurring of reverent love and passionate desire with an almost Shakespearean elegance.

‘If you were church,’ is a refrain of devotion that lodges itself in the mind, intertwining with one’s own experiences of love and longing. It is here, within these memorable lines, that Fall Out Boy seems to confess its own understanding of the human condition through the lens of love.