diff --git a/actionpack/CHANGELOG b/actionpack/CHANGELOG
index c7c28fe1bf4fafa337530b9e516df47e18151d81..3cc848ebf5ba2be5a656ce656d4ec283ae9e07ee 100644
--- a/actionpack/CHANGELOG
+++ b/actionpack/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 *SVN*
 
+* Ensure that render_text only adds string content to the body of the response [DHH]
+
 * Return the string representation from an Xml Builder when rendering a partial. Closes #5044 [tpope] 
 
 * Fixed that parameters from XML should also be presented in a hash with indifferent access [DHH]
diff --git a/actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb b/actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb
index 8e01af406cc0c0ab19d8b58c83a622f47a931ecf..1892bc723109fd99391852ff07251dba69ef5c5f 100755
--- a/actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb
+++ b/actionpack/lib/action_controller/base.rb
@@ -867,9 +867,9 @@ def render_text(text = nil, status = nil, append_response = false) #:nodoc:
 
         if append_response
           response.body ||= ''
-          response.body << text
+          response.body << text.to_s
         else
-          response.body = text
+          response.body = text.to_s
         end
       end