Candy-selling preacher suspected of arson

Carva Lee White, an itinerant preacher and convicted felon, has been implicated by federal authorities in an arson scheme.

An indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kansas, says White set fire to a church in Leavenworth where he was working as a music director. White intended to embezzle the insurance money, according to the indictment.

White, the musically gifted son of a preacher, has a long history of trying to make money in ways that do not involve honest toil. In 2001, he went to prison on a bank-fraud charge. He came to our attention in 2006, when children representing his ministry were selling candy by wading into busy intersections.

A preacher White worked with after his release from prison told me that White used the money raised from the candy sales to support himself. “The fund-raising is a crap of bull,” the minister, Mike Hardy, said. “It’s to help him.”