Just to be clear on what a person is agreeing to when converting from Protestantism to Eastern Orthodoxy or Roman Catholicism:
A portion from the letter from the synod of Nicaea II to the emperor and empress:
The things which we have decreed, being thus well supported, it is confessedly and beyond all question acceptable and well-pleasing before God, that the images of our Lord Jesus Christ as man, and those of the undefiled Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary, and of the honourable Angels and of all Saints, should be venerated and saluted. And if anyone does not so believe, but undertakes to debate the matter further and is evil affected with regard to the veneration due the sacred images, such an one our holy ecumenical council (fortified by the inward working of the Spirit of God, and by the traditions of the Fathers and of the Church) anathematises. Now anathema is nothing less than complete separation from God. For if any are quarrelsome and will not obediently accept what has now been decreed, they but kick against the pricks, and injure their own souls in their fighting against Christ. And in taking pleasure at the insults which are offered to the Church, they clearly show themselves to be of those who madly make war upon piety, and are therefore to be regarded as in the same category with the heretics of old times, and their companions and brethren in ungodliness.
Bob French says
Another definition of Anathema I’ve noticed is “cursed and devoted to destruction”. I think the Synod also includes the penalty of excommunication. Would this mean Protestants worship a different God than the RCC and EO? That is what seems to follow excommunication: a person who is treated as a pagan, a tax collector and unbeliever. If I’m a pagan I must not be worshiping the god that those two churches worship. But, I do not believe God has cursed me, so someone is making a serious mistake!