Paying your Tides vs Paying your Bills..

So I was watching black in America on CNN, (which i must add is a good little series) and this family had a debt of $10,000 but only made $8,000 a month. Now I understand that we are going through hard times but this is what confused me with this family. They pay a tide of 10% of their monthly income which is *drum roll* $800 to the church they attend. Now as stated before, I did say they were $2,000 short every month. So can you tell me why this is going to the church and not their bills? I mean come on, where is the common sense in this reasoning?I know god would understand if you are trying to get yourself out of debt etc.. As its stated the lord help those who help themselves and I think this falls under that category.. The irony of this is, do you think the pastors are going to offer their nice homes you paying for when your butt is out in the cold? I think not. I have no problem with religion but I think the church has been so crooked and money hungry because they know they can get away with it because of silly people like this. These people truly need to wake the HELL up cause this is a dumb move on their part in more ways than one...