To maintain the Status Quo means keeping the overall state of affairs unchanging and current. Amazingly, as much as religion is blamed for making changes and starting things; in reality, religion has also been viewed by Marxists, Feminists, and Fundamentalists as being used as a way to maintain society's Status Quo.
Feminism is one of today's most visible example of what I am talking about. Feminists (and more vocally Feminazis) accuse religion of maintaining a patriarchal society. There are certainly a lot of examples that support this theory: Christianity, Hinduism, Islam... all have evidence and/or doctrines that help keep men in powerful positions. For example, "Our Father" is most often seen and recognized as a male figure. Eve was created to be a, well to put it nicely, a "friend" to Adam. Eve was the first to be duped by Satan to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. All prophets were men. I'm sure you get my point. Religion has been used to keep men in a position of power while, for centuries, keeping women as less important, less knowledgeable, and lower in society.
However, religion has not always been used in such a way. Prior to the birth of Monotheism, religion was often used to keep balance between the genders. For example, the many Goddesses in ancient polytheistic cultures.
According to Karl Marx, religion was used to justify a dominating rule of one social class over another, which in turn would provide consolation over those who were ruled. Similar to the Feminist perspective of the Status Quo, religion was viewed as a conservative force that prohibited changes. The source of consolation came from the idea that should the subjects being ruled did so, they would be rewarded in their next life. If I remember correctly, Marx was the first to coin the phrase that religion maintains the Status Quo (or something to that effect). Those in power used religion to maintain their power.
However, this is also assuming that Marx is correct in his ideas that economic factors shape religion. But according to Weber, economics was shaped by religion; therefore, if the latter is true, religion can bring about vast changes to society.
As has happened several times in history, in today's world we are seeing a sharp increase in the amount of Fundamentalists. Specifically, there has been an increase in Christian Fundamentalists and Islamic Fundamentalists (at least, these are the two most visible).
Fundamentalists often work to bring things back to their original state. While some would see this as a conservative force, in contrast they are working to bring about a change in society (even if that change is going backwards). Any change goes against the Status Quo, even if that change is an attempt to return to an original state of being.
All in all, I fail to see how religion can be blamed for maintaining the Status Quo in society. For each example and argument, there is another, equally strong argument that religion does, in fact, bring about change. Perhaps it does so through evolving ideas? Or perhaps humankind has simply changed religions to meet changing needs? Even if people have attempted in the past to use religion in such a way, to do so would mean to bring about a change in the first place.
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Islam was instrumental in starting women's rights in the Middle East and the overall muslim world. What denigration of women you see in the Middle East is a result of two things:
1) Residual tradition from the Persian empire
2) That Islam made men and women separate but equal. At least in how it was written, men were given the domain of outside the home, but when a man steps foot into a house, it is the woman's domain. In theory, this means that women get to choose how things are run in the home and can order the men to do things within the home. How much this is actually practiced is rather minimal.
--Mike
"Or perhaps humankind has simply changed religions to meet changing needs?"
I think this is the best explanation. As our society has become more advanced, our religions must evolve with it in order for them to still be practiced. Take the religions of the Native Americans, Hawaiians, pretty much any other semi-nomadic people who lived off the land. Their God was Nature. Now that we rely more on ourselves and our technology than on nature, religions such as Christianity, where the God is a supreme, etherial being, became more popular. In my opinion, the colonization of the Americas did more for Christianity than the Crusades ever did, because the best way to change someone's religious beliefs is to change their way of life and force them to adapt to a new belief system.
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A new look at the negative media influence surrounding the VT tragedy:
VT Affects a Would-Be Marine