Belief blockers are issues or ideas that stop people from considering the Christian gospel and changing their worldview in acceptance of it – ie become and stay a Christian.
As a ministry staff team we have been doing some thinking about this in our most recent professional in-service. Now the most recent study of Belief Blockers in Australian society can be found in the Australian Communities Report. It is worth buying a copy! Or you could always download the summary at Report Summary

When it comes to understanding Belief Blockers, it is worth keeping the following formula in mind:

Size of Belief Blocker = Intellectual objection + Outrage

To understand both components:
the intellectual objection is a rational, often fact based component to belief block, and outrage is an irrational, often emotional component.

Christians and churches, in general, tend to attack belief blocks from the intellectual objection angle and have left the outrage alone. However, we are finding that outrage will often be the main component to the Belief Block. For example, church abuse is a significant (# 1) belief blocker primarily because it has both an intellectual objection and a significant moral and emotional outrage component. In fact, the emotional response to the thought “what if this abuse happened to me or to someone I love?” may well be a far stronger source of blockage than the intellectual objection emotions alone.

Apologetics Evangelism Ministry Belief belief block