He's from the First Quorum of Seventy (second anointee), full-time church GA, who'll retire at age 70 with lifetime pension benefits.
He was also the GA at the "Special Fireside for Disaffected Latter-day Saints in Sweden" held on November 28, 2010. Full transcript here: http://www.mormonthink.com/files/swed...
Kopischke was the GA who, according to reports on MormonThink, came with an agenda to the Swedish fireside to weed out the disaffected members with an ultimatum: stay in the church and behave or resign.
Some great info on Kopischke was written by Rollo Tomasi and posted to MormonThink. His essay in pdf format is here: http://www.roadkilldelight.com/NOM/RT...
Quoted from Rollo Tomasi's essay at MormonThink.com
http://www.mormonthink.com/glossary/s...
Comments by LDS critic Rollo Tomasi
His colleague, in contrast, Area President Erich W. Kopischke, had no problem issuing a very direct threat to the members at the end of the meeting. Kopischke's threat is not included on the audiotape or in the Transcript of the meeting - I obtained my information about it from Hans Mattsson's interview with Dehlin (Part 4), which has been confirmed by comments of other attendees posted on the Mormon Stories website. This is how one attendee described it, after complaining that Turley kept using the excuse of "not enough time" to avoid answering questions:
QUOTE:
"The paradox was that the Area general authority [i.e., Kopischke] took almost an hour at the end, sharing the Korihor story[,] telling us not to disturb our friends in the Church[,] and make a decision to stay or leave. (See Comment by Jonathan Bautista on Mormon Stories, 7/22/13)."
According to Hans Mattsson (Part 4 of Dehlin interview), President Kopischke prohibited the members from speaking with anyone about what had been discussed during the meeting. Kopischke also gave the members an ultimatum to decide whether to stay in or leave the Church. In addition, he later directed the members' bishops and stake presidents to speak with each of the members in attendance and get his/her answer about staying in or leaving the Church, which Mattsson said did occur (Mattsson, when asked for his answer by his bishop, responded that he "needed time" - I don't know if Mattsson ever gave his bishop an answer).
Kopischke's ultimatum and required follow-up were confirmed by two other attendees, both of whom posted on Mormon Stories. One attendee wrote:
QUOTE:
"I attended the meeting 2010. In a way I feel like defending Jensen and Turley. What else could they do and say? We received credit that our questions were valid and not just anti-lies, but there are [n]o answers and they could not fabricate any. In the meeting there were several bishops and SP's that had never even heard of these questions, together with us dissidents. Sometime later Jensen said that they were terrified what those leaders would think when they heard about all these issues for the first time. FOR ME PERSONALLY THE AFTERMATH OF THE MEETING WAS THAT I WAS CONTACTED AND ASKED TO RESIGN VOLUNTARY OTHERWISE I WOULD BE EXCOMMUNICATED FOR APOSTASY. I RESIGNED. (See Comment by Christina Hanke on Mormon Stories, 7/21/13) (emphasis added)."
Another attendee wrote:
QUOTE:
"After years of study I ALSO ATTENDED THE MEETING WITH ELDER JENSEN AND BRO. TURLEY. They both came across as very caring and genuine people. The big take away for me at this meeting was that the questions I was having were legit. The history that was troubling me were events that really happened.
I TOO HAD MEETINGS WITH STAKE PRESIDENTS AND BISHOPS as well as stake representatives. Overall however I was treated very well.
The paradox was that the Area general authority took almost an hour at the end, sharing the Korihor story[,] telling us not to disturb our friends in the church[,] and MAKE A DECISION TO STAY OR LEAVE.
For me it was valuable as IT FORCED ME TO MAKE A DECISION I haven't regretted.
Me and my wife have REMOVED OUR NAMES from the LDS records. We have also removed our children's name from the records. (See Comment by Jonathan Bautista on Mormon Stories, 7/22/13) (emphasis added)."
Well, at least with these members, Pres. Kopischke accomplished his mission that night - to get rid of meddlesome members once and for all. In his interview with Dehlin, Mattsson said that 5 or 6 members decided to leave the Church after being given the ultimatum at the meeting.
I personally think a primary reason for the meeting was to ferret out troublemakers and push them out of the Church, and not necessarily to answer tough historical questions. I don't think the meeting would have been held unless the leaders had met beforehand and mapped out a strategy. In fact, at the beginning of the meeting Elder Jensen foreshadowed Pres. Kopischke's later role, saying:
QUOTE:
"I want to thank President [Kopischke] for being here tonight [i.e., he had traveled from Germany] as your area president and I want to invite him to say anything he wants to say at any point during the meeting, BUT HE MENTIONED THAT HE'LL AT LEAST SAY SOMETHING AT THE END IF NOT BEFORE. (Transcript at 3) (emphasis added).
I can't imagine Elder Jensen sitting still if he hadn't known that Pres. Kopischke would go after the members the way he did. This is why I am very troubled by Elder Jensen apparently going along with the ambush at the end of the meeting.
And that folks is a bit of who is Kopischke.
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