A former Navy chaplain who fights to defend religious freedom says it's an outrage that Air Force officials appear ready to remove a requirement for Bibles to be placed in on-base lodging rooms.

The Warner Robins Patriot, a Georgia newspaper, recently reported that officials with Air Force Services Operations have apparently agreed in principle to remove the requirement that Bibles be placed in base lodging by the Gideons. That report -- although disputed somewhat by an Air Force spokesman -- comes following protests from a group called the "Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers."

MAAF claimed that the placement of Bibles in on-base rooms was a "special privilege for Christianity," and an Air Force agency said that a legal review showed "no requirement to have Bibles in the lodging checklist." The atheist group -- which says it had been contacted by a "cockpit atheist" in Kadena Airbase in Japan -- had complained that the accreditation checklist specifying the exact contents of a room included a Bible.

An Air Force official describes that list as "an extensive, 1,200-item checklist" used by innkeepers "to insure standards are being met and maintained." The reference in the checklist is in the form of a question: "Is a Bible provided?"

How would you describe this decision?

Quiet effort to avoid controversy - 5.16%

Example of discrimination against Christianity - 52.14%

Sure sign political correctness rules in military - 42.70%