Challenging student culture

SHAG week in Trinity, just ended, illustrates well the culture in which the chaplains, among them Peter Sexton SJ, spread the Good News. SHAG stands for Sexual Health Awareness and Guidance. The Information Booklet is quite dogmatic about what makes a responsible student: “If you’re having sex, it’s your responsibility to protect yourself with contraception… By carrying a condom with you in your wallet, purse, back pocket, you are being a responsible adult. (Condoms are freely available from the Student Welfare Officer.)” In such a context, which accepts sexual activity as casual and loveless, lacking any moral dimension except care for personal safety, the chaplain’s voice inevitably resembles John the Baptist’s: crying in the wilderness. However, Peter took issue with the simplistic culture of SHAG in a homily to the students in Trinity Hall and in the Trinity Common Room.