A Pet Peeve

"Each individual, it was believed, by the Holy Spirit, was free to follow their own "private interpretations" of the Bible, each having their own promise of "inspiration" and of the "direct speaking" of the Lord and Holy Spirit." (here)

I wrote this a few years ago. Can you spot my grammatical error in it? It is one that I am generally careful to avoid (though others are not). The error is in the pronoun "their" in both "their own private" and in "their own promise." Since the subject was "each" (singular), therefore the pronoun must be singular rather than plural and should read "each having his (or her) own promise." Or I could have made the pronouns to agree by saying "all (plural) have their (plural) own." 

Sometimes in reading old writings of mine I find these oversights and some I have corrected. But, it is a chore correcting old entries in the new blogger dashboard. Grrr.

My wife and I are grammarians. We have corrected each other's English grammar for years. Most of the time it is a slip up and we laugh at it. We also laugh at educated people on television using so much incorrect grammar! They think they are so smart and yet show their ignorance by such incorrect grammar. Still, it takes practice and care to write and speak correctly. But, I do get upset with myself when I find uncorrected grammatical errors in my writings. That is why the best writings come not from first drafts.