Transcribed sermons since 2016-01-01: “love your enemies” and the Sermon on the Mount around it, by tradition and denomination.
Sermons only: scripture readings, prayers and liturgy in full-service recordings are cut out, using each transcript’s detected sermon span. Evangelical sermons quote far more scripture than progressive ones, so raw counts flatter them. These charts compare each theme with texts every tradition preaches (John 3:16, the Great Commission, Romans 8:28, Psalm 23): 100% means a church mentions the theme as often as those texts. Higher is more often. Themes run from the biggest difference between traditions (left) to the smallest (right); the scale is logarithmic. Hover a dot or bar for the counts.
| Tradition | Sermons | Control /1k | Judge not / golden rule | Turn the other cheek | Love your neighbor | Love your enemies | Beatitudes | Rest of the Sermon on the Mount | Sermon on the Mount (named or cited) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| progressive | 23,356 | 8 | 13.7 · 2.4 172% | 6.1 · 0.6 77% | 38.1 · 5.3 482% | 14.6 · 1.7 185% | 8.8 · 2.2 111% | 20.9 · 2.8 263% | 7.8 · 0.8 99% |
| mainline | 9,029 | 34 | 8.4 · 1.9 25% | 6.9 · 1.3 20% | 128.8 · 12.5 380% | 15.2 · 3.7 45% | 18.8 · 7.1 56% | 63.4 · 12.8 187% | 20.5 · 3.9 60% |
| black church | 1,426 | 95 | 6.3 · 0.0 7% | 7.7 · 1.4 8% | 73.6 · 14.0 78% | 22.4 · 4.9 24% | 28.8 · 11.2 30% | 82.7 · 20.3 87% | 54.7 · 11.2 58% |
| evangelical | 14,186 | 95 | 9.9 · 2.4 10% | 6.3 · 0.8 7% | 51.7 · 11.8 54% | 22.6 · 5.6 24% | 19.9 · 7.1 21% | 88.8 · 23.2 93% | 50.3 · 10.5 53% |
Per cell: sermons mentioning it per 1,000 · sermons about it (3+ mentions) per 1,000; below, mentions as a share of mentions of the control texts.
Denominations with enough sermons that cite the control texts to compare (Baptist in gold). Higher bars = mentioned more often; the dashed line is as often as the control texts. Themes run from the biggest difference between traditions to the smallest.
| Denomination | Sermons | Control /1k | Judge not / golden rule | Turn the other cheek | Love your neighbor | Love your enemies | Beatitudes | Rest of the Sermon on the Mount | Sermon on the Mount (named or cited) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| uu | 22,470 | 8 | 13.1 · 2.3 166% | 5.5 · 0.5 70% | 38.3 · 5.2 486% | 14.6 · 1.6 186% | 8.5 · 2.1 107% | 18.8 · 2.4 238% | 7.3 · 0.8 92% |
| christian | 7,169 | 57 | 8.1 · 1.8 14% | 5.7 · 0.6 10% | 44.4 · 9.6 77% | 18.7 · 3.6 33% | 14.1 · 4.5 25% | 72.1 · 18.4 125% | 37.8 · 8.2 66% |
| baptist | 6,827 | 136 | 12.0 · 3.1 9% | 7.2 · 1.2 5% | 59.8 · 14.2 44% | 26.7 · 7.8 20% | 26.5 · 10.1 20% | 107.5 · 28.6 79% | 63.7 · 13.0 47% |
| umc | 3,290 | 40 | 7.3 · 1.8 18% | 5.8 · 1.5 14% | 70.5 · 17.3 174% | 14.0 · 1.5 35% | 15.5 · 7.3 38% | 48.6 · 14.0 120% | 22.2 · 6.4 55% |
| ucc | 2,628 | 21 | 4.6 · 1.5 21% | 7.6 · 0.8 36% | 31.6 · 7.2 148% | 9.1 · 2.3 43% | 14.1 · 6.5 66% | 25.9 · 4.2 121% | 17.1 · 1.9 80% |
| episcopal | 2,048 | 31 | 15.1 · 2.4 49% | 4.9 · 1.5 16% | 381.3 · 12.7 1240% | 19.0 · 7.3 62% | 24.9 · 4.9 81% | 133.8 · 18.1 435% | 11.2 · 0.5 37% |
| ame | 1,426 | 95 | 6.3 · 0.0 7% | 7.7 · 1.4 8% | 73.6 · 14.0 78% | 22.4 · 4.9 24% | 28.8 · 11.2 30% | 82.7 · 20.3 87% | 54.7 · 11.2 58% |
| lutheran | 603 | 66 | 11.6 · 3.3 18% | 13.3 · 1.7 20% | 66.3 · 10.0 100% | 18.2 · 5.0 28% | 19.9 · 13.3 30% | 81.3 · 29.9 123% | 39.8 · 6.6 60% |
Per cell: sermons mentioning it per 1,000 · sermons about it (3+ mentions) per 1,000; below, mentions as a share of mentions of the control texts.
Left out for too few control-text mentions to compare: unity, catholic, orthodox, jewish, presbyterian, mennonite.
The chart above, year by year: for each theme, how often each tradition mentions it compared with the control texts. Higher is more often; the dashed line is as often as the control texts; same order and logarithmic scale as above. Each point pools 3 years centred on that year, widened where a tradition has fewer than 30 sermons citing the control texts, so thin years don’t swing the line.
Matching is phrase and reference based (spelled-out verse numbers are missed in every tradition alike); read
sentences.csv before quoting a number. scripture_theme_analysis v0.5.0.