Berkley Center

Yelile Slaughter: I was born in Laredo, Texas, but my background is very different, I believe, from other people here in Laredo. I am Arabic, Armenian, and Italian. And growing up, I never felt that I belonged, especially because my name is Yelile and it's an Arabic name, which means flower from the desert. And so going to school and growing up, my teachers were never able to pronounce my name correctly. And so they gave me a nickname of Shelly. And I did grow up Catholic, but my mother not being so religious in the sense of sticking to one religion, she basically was able to take me to different congregations to kind of know what religion was. And it wasn't so much religion as much as spiritual.

Paul Frey: What's one of the things that you really developed in your spiritual life from all this experience that you had?

Yelile Slaughter: All of my experiences with my grandmother, with my mother, and just life in general, kind of brought me to where I am now and my thought process of thinking there is a higher power. I've never once in my life ever doubted that.

Paul Frey: Wow.

Yelile Slaughter: And so I do have a lot of faith and I am very spiritual. I may not go to church all the time, but I don't think one needs to go to church all the time to have that closeness to God or whatever someone wants to call a higher being. So Paul, I want to know, have any of your major life decisions been affected by your faith?

Paul Frey: I really sort of was an agnostic atheist teenager. I thought, "How could anybody believe all this stuff, in miracles and resurrection?" And I was pretty much convinced that there was no spiritual nature to the universe, but I had a very powerful religious experience a few years later when I was almost 18 and I thought, "Oh, I think I need to change my mind. There is probably a God. And I think some of this stuff about Jesus turns out to be true." And pretty much every time I'm thinking about something that I know will affect me or my family, I say, "Okay, God, I'm going to put this in your hands. I need you to guide me through this." And sometimes nothing happens other than the decision I think is the smartest thing to do, but sometimes I'll get a little nudge to do something a little different. I think for me, being spiritual is opening yourself up to God and letting yourself hear God. I think God is always speaking to us through people, through nature, through the scripture, through all kinds of ways, but we're often too busy to hear it.

Yelile Slaughter: Paul, who has influenced your life?

Paul Frey: Ooh, tons of people, but I think my parents more than anybody else. My mother was always a very believing person and just loved life and loved her kids and loved animals. And my dad is a little bit more sober, kind of more pragmatic and rational, but always wanted justice and extremely compassionate. And so they've really shaped who I am.