There is a sense in which non-rational objections to gospel present the greatest challenge we face in witnessing to Jesus Christ in the academic milieu of the west. Emotional barriers about the nature of Christianity or regarding becoming a Christian form a significant part of non-rational objections that an evangelist in the western culture needs to understand and address.
For instance, suppose your involved in a conversation with a professor who as a child was forced to go to Sunday school until high school graduation and listen to lectures on morality ad nauseam from her parents. Suppose also that professor saw (or maybe felt) her parent’s marriage was a catastrophe. Imagine, also, that same professor grew up in a family setting where negative emotions were not allowed to be expressed. You’d expect, ceteris paribus, that talking about authority issues (which is implicit in conversations about Christian faith) some “emotional” misunderstandings that make the conversation 
more complicated.
Ceteris paribus, the notion that logic and arguments for God’s existence and love will prevail over a deeply felt antagonism towards authority figures in her life is psychologically preposterous.
Leaving room for the work of the Holy Spirit--who can break through such barriers--doesn’t it still make sense to season our speech with salt (as it were) so that we can respond to the needs of those to whom we proclaim and explain the gospel? Would if there were some specific things that could be done in a non-manipulative way to diffuse those sorts of emotional barriers?
Of course, there is natural resistance to any change, but when change involves hurdling these kinds of impediments (we are talking at this stage about a change in beliefs or maybe a change in reaction to certain beliefs), the task is both more delicate and formidable. On a communication level, you could say that love by itself is not enough; rather, it is knowing how to express love in a way that they can comprehend it that is more likely to be efficacious.
Here are some conversational suggestions for doing that:
- Take time in the conversation to understand their “religious” background narrative (story).
- In complicated cases it may well be a good idea to understand the dynamics of a person’s relationship with authority figures generally (parents, teachers, police, etc.)
- Use that information in a non-manipulative way to shape the way you communicate with them and if possible, help them see how this might affect their feelings towards Christianity. A diplomatic way to do that might be to share how your own story and how your relationship with authority figures shaped your feelings towards Christianity. You might also communicate how recognizing that helped you get beyond it to embrace following Christ.