City leaders in King, North Carolina are removing a memorial to veterans because of threats from anti-Christianist Barry Lynn and the anti-Christian hate group Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

In 2012, the anti-Christian group filed suit against the city because of a memorial that showed a soldier kneeling before a cross.  The group said they were acting on behalf of Steven Hewitt, a local veteran.

“The United States Armed Forces are highly diverse,” Lynn told the Stokes News. “To have a veterans’ memorial that only honors soldiers of one religion is not only a violation of the First Amendment, but also an insult to the memory of non-Christians who served their country.”

“I proudly served alongside a diverse group of soldiers with a variety of different religious beliefs,” Hewitt added in a news release last November. “The City of King should be honoring everyone who served our country, not using their service as an excuse to promote a single religion.”

The city council voted 3-2 to agree to a settlement with the anti-Chrsitianists, stating they didn’t want to continue spending tax dollars to fight the attempts to remove Christians from society.

“The decision to settle this case has been very difficult for the King city council,” a statement from the city outlines. “It was not reached until it became clear that the costs of proceeding to trial would greatly exceed the city’s insurance policy limits.”