By David Miller, American Family Association Affiliate Director
Editors note: After reading a newspaper account of the case, AFA Affiliate Director David Miller traveled to Columbus, Ohio, to interview Mark Johns. Mark is now serving his sentence at the Mansfield Correctional Institute. Readers who would like to write an encouraging letter to Mark can call 601- 844-5036, ext. 314 for the address.
If you or someone you know is struggling with a sexual addiction, call the AFA OutReach Division at 601-844-5128.
October 1998 – It’s an all too typical experience for a young boy living in the shadows of the sexual revolution: He accidentally discovers the enticing flame of pornography and has no idea of how badly he can get burned.
For some,the next decision is one of the most crucial he will ever make. He can turn away or he can indulge his curiosity and possibly find himself drawn into a moral abyss. The truth is that rarely do any of us know where our decisions will lead until we get there. And many times it’s not where we expected to be or where we would have chosen to be if we could start over again.
For Mark Johns, a youthful wrong decision led to an addiction to pornography that resulted in the rape of four women and eventually a 49-year jail sentence. No doubt he’d give anything to return to the crossroad where he took the wrong turn.
Right turns wrong
So where does a story like Mark’s begin? How does a life go so wrong?
In most cases the pornography belongs to an adult in a boy’s life, someone who thinks he has the right to read or watch anything he wants. “Nobody’s going to tell me what I can look at!” the elder arrogantly boasts. “And besides, it doesn’t hurt any one.”
Although Mark’s parents were divorced when he was three, his mother and stepfather were able to create a fairly normal, middle-American home where Mark and his sister were loved and cared for. Then, around age eight or nine on a weekend visit to his father’s house, Mark stumbled upon his dad’s cache of Hustler magazines – really hard core, according to Mark.
Mark’s interest in pornography grew as he invaded his dad’s Hustler stash on each visit. But weekend looks were not enough. He began to steal the magazines and take them home. Masturbation became a habitual routine as he immersed himself daily in sexual imagery.
Over the next several years, some of the most important and formative years of a young person’s emotional and sexual development, an insurmountable stronghold developed in Mark’s life. And given that he never recalls seeing a Bible in his home and only remembers attending Sunday school a few times, Mark was left alone and unarmed to fight a losing battle. “If I had known about God early on, I wouldn’t have ended up like this,” he says.
Obsession and decadence
Pornographic magazines became a steady diet during the subsequent years, and eventually led to other anti-social behaviors. Tragically, Mark fell squarely into a well- established pattern showing that sexual arousal diminishes with repeated exposure to sexual scenes.
Soon common pornography wasn’t enough. His private masturbation deteriorated to public masturbation and exhibitionism, flashing, indecent exposure in public places, voyeurism, phone sex, and picking up prostitutes.
His every thought and action had become consumed by the prospect of his next sexual high. Oblivious to where it was leading, Mark lived a fantasy life of out-of-control compulsion. Soon scrapes with the law became common.
But Mark’s wife gave him unwavering support. She stuck by her husband through a half dozen arrests, often pleading for him to get help. She would make appointments for Mark to see a therapist or counselor, but he couldn’t bring himself to go. Something kept him from admitting he had a sexual addiction and needed help. “I couldn’t seem to help myself and no one out there seemed to have any answers for me either,” he concedes.
No help from courts
Mark claims that the legal system provided absolutely no help for his problems. Again and again, he found himself standing before the same judge and prosecutor, who he says made little attempt to help him change his behavior.
He describes being shown a sex education film and participating in group counseling sessions where sex offenders discussed the details of their cases. Both exercises had the opposite of their intended effect.
Although his anti-social behaviors might wane temporarily during a probation period, Mark’s sexual appetite continued to escalate. When peeping in windows stopped satisfying, he began to intrude into homes to confront women face to face. And when that stopped giving him a sexual thrill, nothing was left but rape.
After each rape Mark says he was filled with grief and shame. He says he was repulsed by his own behavior, yet unable to suppress his obsession.
For short periods of time,the routine of his job and home life would return a sense of sanity – at least enough sanity for Mark to fear someone was going to discover his Dr. Jekyl/Mr. Hyde existence.
Then on October 29, 1996, Mark’s dark life was finally exposed. He was arrested and charged with rape.
Repentance and redemption
By any human measure, life was over for Mark. His wife of six years could take no more and filed for divorce. Realizing he would be incarcerated for many years, Mark had no hope in living and twice attempted to end his life.
By God’s grace, a pastor read about Mark in the local newspaper and visited him in the Medina County Jail.
On November 21, 1996, Mark Johns realized he was a sinner, turned from his sin and asked Jesus Christ to come into his life to forgive and save him. Over the next ten months, Medina County Jail Chaplains Larry and Susan Jarvis discipled Mark in his new life in Christ. “Although I may be in jail,” Mark says, “the Lord sets the prisoner free.”
Ironically, it was October 31, 1997, the end of Pornography Awareness Week 1997, that inmate MarkJohns was finally sentenced for four charges of rape to which he pleaded guilty. He is now serving a minimum 49-year sentence.
At his sentencing,Mark faced the packed courtroom of Medina County Common Pleas Judge Judith Cross. Addressing his victims, he said, “I do want you to know thatI am totally appalled at myself for these horrible crimes that I have committed,” he said. “I’m sorry from deep within my heart that I have caused so much pain for everyone here today.”
“There is not a day that goes by that I don’t regret getting involved in pornography and eventually becoming addicted to it to the point where I no longer functioned as a normal adult.”
Porn’s heavy price
Today, Mark describes his life as a bad dream from which he can’t awake.“It seems like just yesterday I was playing with the kids and now they’re gone.”
To those who have a porn problem,Mark admonishes, “Get out of denial. Get help or it’s going to take over your life. It’s not worth losing everything you love.” 
