Elliot Huck, a 14-year-old from Bloomington, Indiana, decided to skip a preliminary to the National Spelling Bee. Though he placed 45th out of more than 250 spellers in last year's competition and was a favored to go again, he felt convicted to stay home this time around. More precisely, he felt convicted to stay in church. The 2007 Bloomington Herald-Times championship was held on March 4, 2007—a Sunday. In Huck's eyes, the competition conflicted with his view of the biblical commandment to rest on the Sabbath.

"I always try to glorify God with what I do in the spelling bee because he is the one who gave me the talent for spelling," said Elliot. "Now I think I'm going to not spell and try to give glory to God in that."

It certainly wasn't an easy choice for Elliot. He loved his time in Washington D.C. at last year's competition and was looking forward to more of the same. Even so, the expert speller concluded, "I have just accepted that God knows what's best, and I'm just going to do what he says."