 Excommunicated members are also barred from wearing or purchasing temple garments and from paying tithes.Excommunicated members may be re-baptized after a waiting period and sincere repentance, as judged by a series of interviews with church leaders.Some critics have charged that LDS Church leaders have used the threat of excommunication to silence or punish church members and researchers who disagree with established policy and doctrine, who study or discuss controversial subjects, or who may be involved in disputes with local, stake leaders or general authorities; see, e.g., Brian Evenson, a former BYU professor and writer whose fiction came under criticism from BYU officials and LDS Leadership.