Lance Bass Says Fans Should Forgive Justin Timberlake Like Britney Spears Did

Lance Bass says the Justin Timberlake hate needs to stop ... because if Britney Spears can forgive him, so can everyone else.

We got the *NSYNC member Thursday at LAX and he told us he was getting set to read Britney's new memoir, which is chocked full of stories about her ex-boyfriend, JT.

Lance says folks coming after Justin for his role in Britney's abortion, the cheating allegations and their eventual breakup should back off and practice a little forgiveness.

While Lance says everyone is entitled to their own opinion about Justin, he says people should take a note from Britney and just cut the guy some slack.

Britney's book has been a smash hit ... and Lance is glad she's been able to tell her side of things, joking about copying her and getting Michelle Williams to do the audio version should he ever write a memoir.

For his part, Justin's been pretty mum on Britney's tell-all ... but Lance has his back.