Apparently, COVID-19 is brilliant in its targeting and selectively knows when individuals are gathered for worship or whether they’re together to gamble or to commit vandalism and looting. Who knew?

For nearly 30 days, people shoulder to shoulder in the streets of Seattle were allowed freedom of speech and protected under the First Amendment because the coronavirus apparently isn’t targeting these individuals.

Looting and rioting causing more than $500 million in damage along with two deaths in Minneapolis are just people expressing themselves, and their acts are ostensibly protected under the First Amendment. Ergo, COVID is not going to infect these individuals.

Almost three months of marches and destruction of federal property in Portland, where Oregon State Police had to abandon protest patrol to protect the government-owned properties from vandalism, is, as Americans are being told, protected under the First Amendment, and the coronavirus is not looking to attack the health of these individuals.

In Las Vegas, casinos are open at 50% capacity as gamblers enjoy alcoholic beverages and handling currency, chips, cards, and machinery. Their commercial exchanges are absolutely protected by state laws and even a non-ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court because, apparently, COVID is not transmitted among people engaged in these activities.

This novel virus — with a recovery rate of 99.5% — is, according to these Marxist-Democrat experts on virology, immunology, and the living Constitution, aggressively targeting congregants of the Christian faith so much that, in the case of Calvary Chapel Dayton Valley, located just outside Reno, Nevada, only 50 Christians can gather at a time. Contrast that to the 50% occupancy permitted in a casino in the very same state and one must conclude that we’re dealing with one of the most selective, intelligent viruses known to mankind.

If you’re a high roller tossing the dice in a casino, you’re safe. But if you’re a holy roller wanting to observe your First Amendment right to freely exercise and practice your faith, you’re not protected. It’s called discrimination. But because it’s directed toward those who dare to believe in a Higher Being, it’s sanctioned as for the public good.

Chief Justice John Roberts last month joined the Left minority on the Supreme Court to decline the case and allow this discrimination to continue. Roberts’s position mirrored the views of Nevada Democrat Governor Steve Sisolak, who rationalized that casinos are “highly regulated” entities risking “significant punishment” and can be quickly closed if not compliant. Christians in groups over 50 can’t be expected to be compliant at all. Thus, he fined a church for meeting in an open casino.

Even Casino.org — a trade journal for commercial gaming — published remarks reflecting their surprise. Antony Cabot, distinguished fellow of gaming law at UNLV’s Boyd School of Law, said, “Treating churches and casinos under different rules during the COVID-19 pandemic is and will remain controversial.”

I.e., it’s wrong.

Writing for the minority opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch sharply declared, “There is no world in which the Constitution permits Nevada to favor Caesars Palace over Calvary Chapel.”

There is, though — it is a world controlled by its hard-left extremists using whatever means they can find to control the behavior and liberty of their despised counterparts on the political Right. The real contagion that’s infected our nation is the embrace of secularism giving rise to a far-reaching, heavy-handed state. Since the notion of rights endowed by a Creator is universally empowering, it is offensive to those who only want to control, giving rights only to those who conform to progressive culture and politics. Americans must wake up and choose leaders who promote freedom of faith and the liberties our country was founded to embrace.