Bice: Acting Sheriff Richard Schmidt touts degrees from unaccredited and defunct colleges

Daniel Bice | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Show Caption Hide Caption Sheriff Richard Schmidt gives his take on Satan, the Apocalypse and the Rapture Milwaukee County Sheriff Richard Schmidt, a prophecy preacher, discusses the European Union, Satan and the one world order in a May sermon in Oak Creek.

Acting Milwaukee County Sheriff Richard Schmidt likes to tout his education credentials in his bid to win a full term.

Schmidt will tell crowds that he has bachelor's and master's degrees and recently was awarded a doctorate. And he has even begun work on yet another doctorate.

"Dr. Richard Schmidt," proclaim his yard signs for the Aug. 14 Democratic primary. "Milwaukee County sheriff."

But his is not your traditional academic record.

Schmidt got his first two degrees from an unaccredited, Christian fundamentalist college, with a checkered recent history, in which men earn degrees in Bible and theology while programs "specifically for ladies" include "marriage and motherhood" and "missionary wife."

So, literally, it's a college where women can get an MRS degree.

Then Schmidt — who replaced controversial Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. when he abruptly resigned last year — in recent years got his doctorate from a tiny Baptist college in Marinette County where he once served as an unpaid consultant before it shut down in 2015. He is pursuing a second doctorate from yet another unaccredited religious school based in Louisiana.

His dissertation focuses on how he believes the biblical book of Daniel should be interpreted to explain why it has taken so long for the Rapture to occur, kicking off the Apocalypse.

Schmidt now operates Prophecy Focus Ministry, planting churches and preaching around the Midwest. He has said he got into law enforcement more than three decades ago to help support his religious work.

Among his recent sermons, Schmidt suggested that the European Union might be the 10-country confederacy that aligns with the Antichrist as a revived Roman Empire to dominate the world during the end times.

"The speculative thought has come out: Does the European Union play a significant part in this 10-nation confederacy?" Schmidt asks in the sermon titled, "The Apocalyptic, One-world System," on May 27 at First Baptist Church of Oak Creek "Here is the answer: I don't know. Is it interesting? Does it seem like it could fit? It does. But we'll wait to see."

In other online sermons and talks, he says such things as he doesn't read fiction and believes the Earth is only 6,000 years old.

Schmidt has declined to answer most questions about his educational record, except for a few questions about his doctorate.

Critics have seized on his résumé to question his credentials to be sheriff.

Domestic violence comments

Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of the pro-immigration Voces de la Frontera, chided Schmidt for his "spurious degrees" and 2017 podcast in which he seemingly advises victims of domestic violence to stay in the relationships and "submit" to abusive spouses.

"Our movement did not force Sheriff Clarke out of office only for his longtime assistant to come and continue his record of extremism," said Neumann-Ortiz, who is backing Schmidt's opponent Earnell Lucas in the August primary.

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College studies

Schmidt earned his first two degrees from Hyles-Anderson College, a fundamentalist school tied to the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, a megachurch that once claimed 20,000 members.

The school is unaccredited, meaning its students can't get financial aid from the state or federal governments and it is not held to the same standards as other private and public colleges. Also, some employers won't accept degrees from an unaccredited school.

Schmidt's wife, for instance, got an education degree from Hyles-Anderson but had to go to an accredited college before she could teach.

Many degrees at Hyles-Anderson are offered by gender. According to its website, degrees in Bible and theology are "primarily for men." Among the programs for women are "secretarial studies," marriage and motherhood, and missionary education.

To get a bachelor's in marriage and motherhood, female students get to take such classes as "crock pot cooking," "canning and freezing" and "Christian womanhood."

In recent years, Hyles-Anderson and First Baptist Church have been embroiled in a number of scandals.

"Multiple websites tracking the First Baptist Church of Hammond have identified more than a dozen men with ties to the church — many of whom graduated from its college, Hyles-Anderson, or its annual Pastors’ Schools — who fanned out around the country, preaching at their own churches and racking up a string of arrests and civil lawsuits, including physical abuse of minors, sexual molestation, and rape," said a Chicago Magazine piece in 2012.

That same year, Jack Schaap, son-in-law to co-founder Jack Hyles and Hyles-Anderson's chancellor, was fired as senior pastor at First Baptist after he pleaded guilty to taking a student of the church's high school across state lines to have sex with her. He was sentenced to 12 years.

Schmidt earned his doctorate in ministry from Northland International University, a tiny Baptist college in Dunbar, Wis., that closed its doors in 2015.

The school was accredited by a national organization that reviewed conservative Christian colleges. But state officials wouldn't OK financial aid for Northland's students because it lacked an endorsement from one of the six established regional accrediting agencies for colleges.

In 2013, a Journal Sentinel story said Schmidt had been named Northland's executive vice president and chief financial officer even while he remained the No. 2 for the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office.

But in an email, Schmidt said he never took the title of CFO but served as an unpaid consultant for the college. He said he did recommend someone for the financial position who did take the job.

"A new president was brought into the organization shortly after the board asked for my help," Schmidt wrote in his email. "The new president would not follow my counsel and my consulting relationship ended before I completed my studies."

IRS records show Northland Mission, which ran the college, lost $4.8 million in 2015, or nearly half of its assets. The mission now uses the property to run church camps.

In a sermon last month, Schmidt said he is now enrolled in another doctoral program with another unaccredited school.

He explained via email that he is getting his degree from the satellite campus of Louisiana Baptist University under evangelist Jimmy DeYoung in Chattanooga, Tennessee. DeYoung wrote the foreward to the published copy of Schmidt's dissertation, "Daniel's Gap, Paul's Mystery: What Paused the Prophetic Calendar?"

The school opened in the 1970s as Baptist Christian University, which was known for offering degrees to Baptist ministers after they completed correspondence courses, prompting critics to call it a "diploma mill." Today, the proudly unaccredited college offers courses via the web and mail and in a traditional classroom.

It has total assets of $3.6 million in 2016, according to IRS records.

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Garren Randolph, spokesman for Lucas, declined to criticize Schmidt directly over his educational record, instead emphasizing his candidate's credentials.

"Earnell stands by his education in the Milwaukee Public Schools system, Marquette University and the extensive management training he has received," Randolph said.

Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 224-2135 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.