Dallas, TX
Bestselling Dallas-area author on what the church needs to learn about teaching emotions
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/dmn/QZ5AFW6MQJGXBNTOMXOTTJCZTI.jpg?ssl=1 "Bestselling Dallas-area author on what the church needs to learn about teaching emotions")
New York Times bestselling author and Dallas-area resident Jennie Allen, whose latest book was published this week, has been teaching the Bible since she was 17. “I met Jesus, and I literally just fell in love with him,” she said. “I had to talk about it; I was annoying all my friends.”
Allen started a Bible study with girls from her high school, and they met in her family’s living room to study the Book of Revelation. “It sounded interesting to me as a 17-year-old. I didn’t know how complicated it was,” she said of the famously-difficult book.
Her reach has since grown considerably. She has an active social media presence, with over 175,000 followers on Facebook and over 400,000 on Instagram. She also founded and leads an annual conference for Christian women called IF: Gathering, which will hold its 10th edition Feb. 23-24 at Fort Worth’s Dickies Arena. Last year, the conference had 50,000 in-person and virtual attendees and its livestream was viewed over 600,000 times in 129 countries, Allen’s press team said.
Allen’s 2020 book Get Out Of Your Head: Stopping the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts has sold over 1 million copies and spent 36 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, according to her press team. Her new book Untangle Your Emotions: Naming What You Feel and Knowing What to Do About It has made Amazon’s best-seller list. To promote the book, she appeared Thursday on the Today show.
Allen, 47, said her big break came in 2010, when she was offered a deal to write two books and seven Bible studies by a Christian publisher. “I had no platform whatsoever,” Allen said. “I didn’t deserve that.”
She has since written books on topics including mental health and faith. Her most recent one, she said, reflects a change in how she views emotions. It was informed by lessons she’s learned since the pandemic, when she met with a small group of friends and a counselor over Zoom. “We came together to carry each other’s heavy stuff,” she said.
The counselor helped Allen and her friends learn how to listen to one another’s feelings without shaming or judging emotions she said they’d otherwise see as “negative.” “They showed me that, when they spoke to my emotion with their emotion, instead of trying to fix me, I felt seen and safe and comforted,” Allen said of the group.
In her new book, she shares the lessons she learned, drawing on insights from the Bible and modern psychology. As she wrote, Allen read books from psychologists including Chip Dodd and Lisa Feldman Barrett.
In all her work, Allen said, she aims to share the “last 2%” of her life that even other vulnerable people might hold back. In Untangle Your Emotions, she talks about her husband’s experience with depression and her own anxiety around her children moving far from home. “I think why that’s embarrassing is it feels like a controlling, crazy mom,” she said of sharing her experience.
But it was important to do so, she said. “The Bible says ‘mourn with those who mourn,’ because our brain is meant to heal as we share the hard things.”
Part of her journey with emotions has involved shifting her perspective on parenting, Allen explained. “Once I got comfortable with ‘negative’ emotions, or uncomfortable emotions, I could sit with other people in them. My kids found me to be a much safer place.
“The most beautiful moments of parenting — for me, it’s been apologizing. And just saying I’d like to do this better, and I’m sorry that I didn’t.”
Allen hopes the thinking that transformed her parenting can help change the way the church teaches about emotions. “We don’t have a good theology of emotions,” she said. “We tend to make people feel guilty for being emotional or having emotions, when what a difficult emotion needs is comfort.”
Allen has a vision for the church that looks different. Citing Romans 8:1 — “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ” — she said it “means that we should be the safest place to struggle, to feel fear or anger or sadness. I do believe we have that potential.”
Joy Ashford covers faith and religion in North Texas for The Dallas Morning News through a partnership with Report for America.
At least four people were injured after a vehicle drove into a crowd of people in Dallas on Thursday evening.
Dallas police responded to an “Assist Officer call with an Ambulance” at approximately 7 p.m. in the 300 block of West Davis Street.
Authorities learned that a vehicle drove into a crowd, injuring multiple people. At least four have been taken to a local hospital for treatment. Police said no one was in critical condition.
The driver of the vehicle was arrested at the scene, police said. Authorities are still working to determine if this driver could have been drunk or if this could have been a medical episode.
According to police, there is no indication that the crash was terrorism related.
The investigation is ongoing.
This story will be updated as we learn more.
Dallas, TX
FOX’s Kasper Schmeichel compares England to Dallas Cowboys, so who are their other sports analogs?
Scottish World Cup fans reportedly drink Boston dry
Dana Perino announces that Scottish World Cup fans have caused an unprecedented beer shortage in Boston, emptying bars and liquor stores. Jesse Watters playfully observes that Europeans visiting America seem to “love it,” despite negative media portrayals, while Greg Gutfeld adds a satirical comment about “liberal mayors” and local resource management, contrasting Boston’s beer woes with LA’s water and Chicago’s Bears.
FOX Soccer analyst Kasper Schmeichel came prepared for this year’s World Cup on American soil.
The former Danish goalkeeper may not be from around these parts, but that didn’t stop him from dropping an eerily accurate comparison between two overconfident but long-suffering sports programs.
With England and Croatia warming up inside AT&T Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys, Schmeichel decided he would roast two fanbases with one stone, comparing the Cowboys to the Three Lions with a hilarious one-liner.
Funny, but also painfully true if you’re a supporter of either team.
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I made a comparison last week between the English national team and Notre Dame, but Schmeichel got me thinking, who are the sports analogs to England from the four major North American leagues (NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA)?
Today, I will be doing exactly that, including giving a slightly better NFL comp than the Cowboys (shocking, I know).
Without further ado, let’s piss off our neighbors from across the pond.
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NFL – Chicago Bears
Chicago Bears helmets are displayed before the game against the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nev., on Sept. 28, 2025. (Kiyoshi Mio/Imagn Images)
While the Dallas Cowboys are a fine comparison for the English national soccer team, I think I can do one better.
Schmeichel mentioned that England “won it once and have never stopped talking about it,” and although the second part of that statement applies to both, the Cowboys are five-time Super Bowl champions, having won it most recently in January 1996, a good three decades after England.
If you really want a team that more accurately mirrors the hard luck of the English, it would have to be the Chicago Bears.
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They have one Super Bowl win to their name, which came 40 years ago, and really don’t have much else to show for it.
Also, having lived in the DFW area for the better part of a decade, I can confidently say Cowboys fans are a little too arrogant and cocky to be compared to the English.
Sure, England will say things like “it’s coming home,” but they are far more self-deprecating and aware of their faults, even nihilistic in some cases.
The Bears hang onto their history because they know things will inevitably go bad for them on the biggest stage.
Speaking of which…
NHL – Toronto Maple Leafs
Spencer Carbery, assistant coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, looks on from the bench during the third period against the Washington Capitals at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ont., on April 14, 2022. (Kevin Sousa/NHLI via Getty Images)
The Toronto Maple Leafs actually line up with England more closely than either fanbase would like to admit.
While the Leafs have a litany of Stanley Cups to their name, their most recent win was back in 1967, less than a full year after England won their first and only World Cup.
As far as expectations go, both constantly go into their respective tournaments with the weight of the world on their shoulders, only to come crashing down in the most horrific ways imaginable.
For the Leafs, it comes in the form of blowing big leads in the playoffs, while English fans and players alike can’t even hear the words “penalty kicks” without having a mental breakdown.
England and Toronto are both long-suffering cities, but their fans keep showing up expecting a different outcome.
Insanity? No, just sports fandom.
NBA – New York Knicks
Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks celebrates a three-point basket with Karl-Anthony Towns during Game Two of the 2026 NBA Finals at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas, on June 5, 2026. (Ronald Cortes/Getty Images)
This one would have been an even better comparison if the New York Knicks hadn’t gone and won the whole damn thing this year, but these two sports teams are still eerily similar.
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Think of the Knicks’ 2026 NBA Championship run as a window into what it would look like if England captured a World Cup (on American soil, no less).
Before this year, the Knicks famously had not won a Larry O’Brien trophy in over 50 years, yet they were still considered one of the “blue bloods” of the NBA.
Decades of heartache didn’t change that; it only made their fans more insufferable, but their triumph earlier this month in the NBA Finals exorcised all those demons.
THE ATHLETIC BEWILDERINGLY CELEBRATES ‘ZOHRAN MAMDANI SPORTS SUMMER’ AFTER NEW YORK KNICKS WIN NBA FINALS
A win in the World Cup Finals would probably do the same for England fans, as you could probably feel that sigh of relief from the other side of the Atlantic.
MLB – New York Mets
New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto reacts after scoring a run on an RBI double by infielder Bo Bichette against the San Francisco Giants during the first inning at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Calif., on April 2, 2026. (Robert Edwards/Imagn Images)
Hello again, New York.
The Big Apple certainly has its fair share of winners, but it also has plenty of franchises that are aching to make a trip back down the Canyon of Heroes, none more so than the Mets.
Year after year, the Mets are near the top of MLB in terms of spending, with little to show for their efforts.
WATCH THE WORLD CUP FINAL ON FOX ONE
They won a World Series back in 1986 and have been chasing that high ever since.
The common thread between England and the Mets (along with all the other teams on this list) is expectations relative to results, and it seems like the Mets are sort of a Schrödinger’s baseball franchise in that regard, expected to both compete for a World Series with their high-priced talent and flame out in spectacular fashion all the same.
FOX ONE’S NEW WORLD CUP VIEWING EXPERIENCE
England always has flashy players heading into World Cup play, but the results haven’t been there, and they’ve often been sent home in brutal fashion, offering a great parallel to the Mets’ clockwork-like midsummer swoons and late-season meltdowns.
Guerrocastillo was taken into custody without incident and charged with Prohibited Weapon, a third-degree felony; Unlawful Carrying of a Weapon, a class A misdemeanor; Possession of Marijuana under two ounces, a class B misdemeanor; and Public Intoxication, a class C misdemeanor.
“Foot patrols are a foundational part of policing, and our Deep Ellum Task Force officers are making great arrests and providing increased security by walking a beat,” said Deputy Chief Devon Palk, who is commander of the Central Patrol Group. “Having our officers on foot, on horseback, and in our new Polaris utility vehicle puts officers exactly where we need them during peak hours in the area.”
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