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Shame & Guilt in sermons

Shame & Guilt comes up in 4.1% of the 49,328 transcribed sermons on Divining, most often in Mennonite (8.8%), United Church of Christ (5.4%), Jewish (5.4%) churches. It is preached more since 2025 (5.8% of sermons, up from 3.3%).

4.1% of sermons2,041 sermons14 denominations

Sermons on this theme talk about shame, the weight of guilt, there is now no condemnation, free from shame, the voice of condemnation. Part of Human Experience & Emotion. Least common in Catholic churches (0.6%).

Year by year

ProgressiveMainlineBlack churchEvangelicalAll churches
0%2%4%6%8%10%201620182020202220242026Progressive 2016: 3.9%Progressive 2017: 6.2%Progressive 2018: 4.0%Progressive 2019: 5.6%Progressive 2020: 4.5%Progressive 2021: 2.7%Progressive 2022: 3.6%Progressive 2023: 4.8%Progressive 2024: 4.8%Progressive 2025: 5.5%Progressive 2026: 5.6%Mainline 2016: 2.5%Mainline 2018: 4.5%Mainline 2019: 10%Mainline 2020: 4.0%Mainline 2021: 0.7%Mainline 2022: 1.5%Mainline 2023: 4.7%Mainline 2024: 7.1%Mainline 2025: 4.5%Mainline 2026: 5.8%Black church 2022: 0.0%Black church 2023: 4.8%Black church 2024: 1.8%Black church 2025: 4.8%Black church 2026: 5.7%Evangelical 2016: 5.9%Evangelical 2017: 2.7%Evangelical 2018: 5.2%Evangelical 2019: 3.2%Evangelical 2020: 4.8%Evangelical 2021: 1.1%Evangelical 2022: 1.7%Evangelical 2023: 3.7%Evangelical 2024: 4.8%Evangelical 2025: 6.4%Evangelical 2026: 6.0%All churches 2016: 4.4%All churches 2017: 4.2%All churches 2018: 4.6%All churches 2019: 4.9%All churches 2020: 4.5%All churches 2021: 1.8%All churches 2022: 2.8%All churches 2023: 4.6%All churches 2024: 5.1%All churches 2025: 5.4%All churches 2026: 5.9%

By denomination

Mennonite: 8.8% of 227 sermonsMennonite8.8%United Church of Christ: 5.4% of 2,752 sermonsUnited Church of Christ5.4%Jewish: 5.4% of 242 sermonsJewish5.4%Christian / non-denominational: 5.0% of 7,785 sermonsChristian / non-denominational5.0%United Methodist: 4.9% of 3,745 sermonsUnited Methodist4.9%African Methodist Episcopal: 4.8% of 1,402 sermonsAfrican Methodist Episcopal4.8%Presbyterian: 4.7% of 300 sermonsPresbyterian4.7%Unitarian Universalist: 4.2% of 21,206 sermonsUnitarian Universalist4.2%Lutheran: 3.8% of 639 sermonsLutheran3.8%Baptist: 3.4% of 6,663 sermonsBaptist3.4%Unity: 1.7% of 844 sermonsUnity1.7%Orthodox: 1.0% of 305 sermonsOrthodox1.0%Episcopal: 0.9% of 2,010 sermonsEpiscopal0.9%Catholic: 0.6% of 334 sermonsCatholic0.6%

All churches: 4.1%. Denominations with 150+ tagged sermons.

Preached alongside

Themes that share a sermon with Shame & Guilt more often than chance (×2 = twice as often as in sermons overall).

Addiction & Recovery ×2.3Divorce & Broken Relationships ×2.3Dating & Godly Relationships ×2.2Forgiveness & Reconciliation ×2.0Disability & Belonging ×1.9Gender & Sexuality / Inclusion ×1.9Faith & Mental Health ×1.9Identity & Worth ×1.8

Churches that preach it most

Listen to sermons on Divining

Share of transcribed sermons on Divining with at least one chapter on a theme, from Divining’s topic segmenter; 2016 to Nov 2026. Updated Nov 2, 2026 · Site map · Divining: a deeper search for meaning · build_seo_pages v0.0.1