It's a safe bet that more people in the Bismarck community have read an e-mail warning them not to see the movie "The Golden Compass" than have read the book on which the movie is based.

The Bismarck Public Library reports that the book, which is in the library's teen section, has been checked out 85 times, which is a lot, said assistant library director Mary Jane Schmaltz. She couldn't determine the time period over which the book was checked out. Finding adults who have read the book is tougher, however.

An informal survey of adults turned up none who had read the book, but almost all had heard about or received one of the e-mails circulating locally, calling Philip Pullman's award-winning trilogy, "His Dark Materials" (of which "The Golden Compass"is the first book), anti-Christian and asking parents not to take their children to see the movie when it goes into wide release on Friday. The Catholic League also has denounced Pullman as promoting atheism in the books, the first of which was published in Britain in 1995.

The movie stars Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig in the primary adult roles. "The Golden Compass"tells the story of 11-year-old Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards), a girl living in an alternate world with some similarities to our own, who is given a golden compass and follows it to her destiny.

That destiny is not revealed in the first book. It is only in the second and third books, "The Subtle Knife" and "The Amber Spyglass," that critics say that Pullman's anti-religion agenda is fully realized.

The e-mails raise concerns that parents will assume that the $150 million movie, with the same look, fantasy elements and special effects as blockbusters such as "The Lord of the Rings," "The Chronicles of Narnia" and the Harry Potter movies, has the same messages.

Where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, "Narnia" and "Rings" authors respectively, were committed Christians, Pullman is an atheist-agnostic who promotes those views in these books, critics say.

When the movie was previewed Saturday at the Grand Theatres in Bismarck, attendance was good, a mix of adults and young people, said theater owner Jerry Brekke. Only one person expressed objections to the movie to him, he said.

Critics, however, say they are concerned that the movie has watered down the anti-religion aspects of the book, which might lull parents into buying the books for their children, according to one e-mail.

In an interview about fantasy literature at powells.com, Pullman talked about his work, saying that literature to him is "a kind of school of morals. It is a kind of place where moral conundrums, moral dilemmas, moral puzzles are acted out. Where moral solutions are found. It's a safe place where this can happen, but it's also a very truthful place. And it's a place where we can suffer in absentia, as it were, by proxy - we can suffer, we can learn, we can grow by proxy."

Locally, though neither Laura Just, of Mandan, nor Shannon Wirrenga, of Bismarck, has read the series in its entirety, both have researched the books and do have concerns, they say.

Wirrenga, a Christian artist and the mother of two children, ages 11 and 14, said that parents assume that because they themselves are spiritually mature enough to make judgments about the messages wrapped in entertainment, that children also have that ability.

"It's like the food you take in,"she said. "It could be healthy or not healthy." For Wirrenga, the goal is to be watchful, "to guard your heart and mind," she said.

"I am against censorship and completely supportive of discussion,"she said. "Also, there is nothing wrong with warning others of an impending danger. That is why a discussion is going on, especially amongst Christians, that this movie, and especially the books, is a wolf in sheep's clothing intending to prey upon our children."

Wirrenga says that Christians need to keep something very important in mind: "When we buy these books and go to these movies, we are financially supporting someone whose intent is to 'crucify' our beliefs. Not only does it financially support them, but in doing so we also encourage them to create more of the same materials."

"If we absolutely have to use these movies and books for discussion materials, wait until we can check them out from the library," she said.

Just, a youth minister for seven years at Spirit of Life Catholic Church in Mandan, said the excerpts she has read from the books seem to her"very dark, anti-life."

When Scholastic, Pullman's publisher, sent promotional materials to her six months ago, the content of the movie sounded like "The Chronicles of Narnia," Just said.

Two months ago, however, Just attended a conference where concerns were raised and she started to get lots of e-mails about the movie, she said.

Just, whose three children are 5, 4 and 3, looked through the books and read excerpts to make sure the concerns weren't overreactions, and became more disturbed, she said.

She's talked with other youth pastors about the movie and books, and a notice will be published in some church bulletins before the movie's opening weekend, she said. The youth pastors' reactions were mixed, Just said. But the gist of their reactions was that people should know what they're watching.

"Pullman is an atheist," Just said. "His goal is to get you to see that side, not necessarily to adopt it, but we get desensitized to the message, the more we sit in front of it."

Just is concerned that characters in the book say that God is not humans' creator, and that we have no "inner voice," or "conscience."

"Life is not a free-for-all," she said. "There are rules."

Where the first movie is fairly tame, a third movie, if it was true to the book, would be highly inappropriate for children, she said.

If your children do get the books, or read them, don't overreact, Just said. "Be educated, sit down with them, have a discussion. Don't go (to the movie)unaware," she said.

"The intrigue level and hoopla and religious debates bring out people," she said. "Do your research."

The movie, rated PG-13, opens Friday at the Grand Theatres in Bismarck.

(Reach reporter Karen Herzog at 250-8267 or karen.herzog@;bismarcktribune.com.)